Train
by bandura
Summary: It all starts when Hinata misses her train. Sasuke gets stuck traveling with a stranger, but when he starts to look forward to the journey more than the destination, he realizes that it's the one who shares his journey that makes all the difference.
1. How we met

The story is based on a movie I saw a long long time ago. I hope you enjoy it.

disclaimer: I don't own anything. I know. Shocking, right?

* * *

Betrayal.

You don't know how much a person means to you until they betray you. The pain you feel afterwards conveys the kind of hold they have on your life. The heart bleeds from it as it parades the fact that you were stupid enough to let that person close to you. But in the end we do the same thing again only to realize our mistakes when it's too late.

However, you can reach a point where the betrayal leaves a scar so deep in your heart that you never want to feel it again. Instead you lock it up and throw away the key because you will never allow anyone to get close to it ever again.

My name is Sasuke Uchiha, and never in my life have I hated myself so much as I do now.

I was familiar with betrayal from a very early age. My mother had left my father when I was seven. She had run away to be with the one she loved, apparently, more than her own family. From that day on, I despised her, and never let her get close to me, no matter how hard she tried or apologized.

But, I guess that wasn't enough for me to learn my lesson since I decided to give my heart away to a girl. Her name was Sakura Haruno. We were 19 years old at the time and I had decided that I should finally respond to my friend's feelings. We were together for three years, and I don't know when but along the way I had fallen in love with her. In the end, that wasn't enough for her, since she left me to be with my best friend, Naruto Uzumaki, who had loved her since we were children. I showed her affection in my own way, albeit it was subtle, but she had decided that she wanted to be with Naruto who had given her all his attention from day one. That had created a strain in our friendship since it was both of them, my girlfriend and my best friend, who had betrayed me. And now, three years later, seeing their wedding invitation at my doorstep only renewed the pain that I felt when I first found out about them.

If you think that I learned my lesson after that, then you are mistaken, because up until now nothing had broken my resolve in life. Nothing. Until now.

Even after being betrayed by my mother and my first love, I thought I was invincible to the kind of pain that would absolutely shatter your heart. Little did I know that it would come in the form of my brother, the last person I expected.

Itachi Uchiha was a role model to me. He was perfect in every aspect. Even my father preferred Itachi over me for almost everything, but my brother never failed to make me feel included. I always looked up to him, and he was always there in my time of need. Which is why his betrayal was the one I could not bear at all.

My brother had kicked me out of the Uchiha Company.

After my father stepped down as the CEO, he had named Itachi as his successor, and as the new CEO, Itachi's first course of action was to get rid of me from the company, completely. He had fired me, stripped me of my title, frozen my assets, and taken away all that I had earned through the Uchiha Company. Now I was jobless, and quite soon to be homeless, depending on how long my savings would last me.

I would've fought him to get back what I earned, but what he said pierced me in the most hurtful way. He was the one person who always believed in me. So to hear him say that I was always worthless and did not deserve any of it broke my resolve.

My future's outlook from now looks really bleak, in my opinion. I know there are people who are in worse positions than me but having your spirit ripped out of you makes everything worse.

For the past week since I got fired, I have been holed up in my apartment, but somehow a wedding invitation in my trashcan caught my attention. So today, dressed in the most expensive suit I owned, I was aimlessly walking around Konoha. I had been walking for a few hours now, debating whether I should go to Naruto and Sakura's wedding.

By now the ceremony would have ended so they would probably be at the reception.

Making my decision, I started heading towards the place where they were holding their reception. I don't know what kind of masochistic desire I have right now but for some reason I have to see. I have to get a point across to my heart so that it finally shuts itself off from the world.

As I walked in I was relieved that no one noticed my late arrival. Everyone was busy talking, eating or congratulating the newly wed couple, Naruto and Sakura. They seemed different from the last time I saw them three years ago. Seeing them smiling and being happy like that hurt. How could their life be perfect while I was losing everything? I had lost my mom, the girl I loved, and now my job. I hated them for what they did to me. I hated everything.

Naruto somehow noticed my presence and soon Sakura was looking in my direction too. I could see them tense up as Sakura's grip on Naruto's arm tightened. Hesitantly Naruto smiled, and then slowly made his way over to me. I could tell that they were dragging their feet, especially Sakura. She was avoiding looking in my eyes. That angered me even more.

Somehow, I didn't move from my spot. I just waited while I watched them make their way towards me. I hid all my emotions from my face because I didn't want them to see how much this was affecting me. How much they had affected me. My insides were churning with every step Naruto took towards me with Sakura right behind him, but on the outside I was calm.

They stopped when they got closer to me, and Sakura slipped out her hand from around Naruto's arm. She still couldn't look at me, while Naruto was staring right at me with a hesitant smile as if he was wary of me exploding at them or something. Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but before anything could come out, a bright light was shinning on the couple.

"Ladies and gentlemen! It is now time for the bride and groom to have their first dance," someone announced on the speakers.

Everyone started clapping as Naruto and Sakura looked at all the people starring at them now.

I couldn't take it anymore.

"Congratulations," I said quietly before I left. I knew they heard it because of the surprised and hurt expression that showed on their faces.

I have had enough with everything in my life right now. Seeing them today helped me realize that it was easier to hate than to feel the pain. I could not be stupid and weak anymore to let something like this happen again. I had to sever all the ties and distance myself from everyone in my life, but with that I knew that my heart would turn hollow.

It was easier to hate and be hollow on the inside, than to feel the pain of betrayal.

With this new found knowledge I didn't feel any better but at least I couldn't get hurt anymore.

After I left their reception, I didn't go back to my apartment. It was just another reminder of my brother's betrayal and my own failures. Instead, I chose to wander around town even more.

Soon the sun was setting and I had somehow found my way to the train station. My cufflinks were missing and so was my tie, but I didn't care. I must have thrown them somewhere.

There were lots of people on the platform right now and it felt kind of pleasant to be surrounded by so many strangers that didn't know me, that didn't know what I had gone through. I could easily pretend and they won't know the difference. Anyone could be easily fooled.

I made my way on to the train that had just arrived. Someone was announcing the destination on the speakers but I didn't pay attention. I just walked through the compartments until I found the emptiest one and sat there. I wanted to be alone and completely isolated.

The train started moving slowly and then gained momentum. After a few minutes a girl came huffing in to my compartment. She probably ran to catch the train. She was staring at me while trying to catch her breath but I didn't notice her.

Even after she stopped panting, she kept staring at me and I still hadn't noticed her presence. I was in some kind of a daze while looking into the darkness outside the window. The breeze from it was cool as it hit my face.

"Um, e-excuse me," she said but I hadn't heard her.

"E-excuse me," she said a bit louder, but I still did not notice her.

"Hey... Hellooooo," she started waving her hand in front of my face, which finally got my attention. How long has she been here?

"You're in my seat," she said after I turned to look at her.

"What?" I said as if I hadn't heard her.

"Y-you are in my seat," she said again while pointing at the seat I was sitting in. She even took out her ticket to show me her seat number. I looked around the compartment to see that there was no one on this side except for us two.

Well, what do you know. The one seat I decided to sit on in an empty compartment is taken.

But instead of moving like she wanted me to, I just stared at her. There were so many empty seats that she could choose from. It's not like it mattered at this point where you sat.

"T-this is my seat... The seat number is clearly written on my ticket, and I bought it." She waved her ticket in my face as if to make a point.

My plan for solitude went down the drain seeing how she was being stubborn. So I just moved on the opposite side of her seat.

"Thank you! I know, you're probably wondering why this girl is so stubborn about a seat when the whole compartment is practically empty. But, I just like to be careful. You never know what the train conductors could do. I even heard that someone got a hefty fine once when they weren't sitting in their seat. God, I do not have that much money to lose on a stupid fine. I'm so broke right now that it's not even funny.

"You know how people make those jokes about how they can't do something because they're broke but in reality they're not that broke. Well you don't realize how _not_ funny that situation is when you're in it yourself," the girl kept rambling on as she placed her luggage away. I just tuned her out since she was not shutting up.

"My name is Hinata, by the way," she said when she finally sat down in her seat.

I just ignored her, but that didn't stop her.

"Wow, this is the first time I'm leaving Konoha in two years! Last time was when I was still in college. I used to live here when I was young but my family moved to Suna. I missed Konoha so much when I was there, so I decided to go to college here, and when I graduated I didn't want to leave so I took a job offer here. My dad was so mad about that," she giggled, "but he came around.

"I got so busy when my job started so I couldn't go back to visit my family. I miss them so much. I miss my big room at home especially. You know the apartments in Konoha are so expensive and so tiny! When I was in college, my father paid for me to live in a hostel. I had to share a room with two girls! But after graduation I had to pay for my own apartment. My father said something about learning to be independent," she shook her head at that, "he's strict like that with his tough love and all, but behind all of that tough exterior, he is just a big soft teddy bear. He used to be an even bigger softie when I was a little girl.

"Oh, I remember this one time I got lost in our backyard and he got so worried that he sent everyone in the house to look for me. This wasn't some ordinary backyard, mind you. We have a huge house in Suna, like a compound, because everyone in the family lives together. I'm the only one, except for my cousin Neji, who moved out of the compound to Konoha.

"Did I tell you that my cousin Neji lives in Konoha too? He got into the same college as I did so we went together and then he found a girl he wanted to marry so he decided to stay in Konoha too!"

Oh my god! This girl kept going on and on and on. She wasn't shutting up! Her voice was quite soft and soothing to listen to at some point, but her rambling was getting on my nerve. I just wanted it to be quiet. She was either too naive or too stupid to just ramble on about her life to a complete stranger.

My left eye started to twitch by this point. I tried everything, from ignoring her to glaring at her but it didn't work. I started to rub my temples to help subside an oncoming headache. She could not take the hint that,

"I DO NOT GIVE A SINGLE FUCK ABOUT YOU!"

Oh shit. Did I say that out loud? From the look of her mouth hanging open and the slight heat rising on her cheeks, I think I did. But now I couldn't stop.

"I don't care if you're from Konoha or Mars, or the fact that you're visiting your family, or that your dad is some kind of a teddy bear in disguise, or that you used to live in a hostel or a brothel! I don't care, so just shut up!" I yelled before I turned to stare out the window.

That shut her up, but now it was too quiet. The only sound that was left for the next few minutes was the sound of the train moving on its tracks.

I could feel the guilt building up in my gut. From the corner of my eyes I saw that she was pouting in her seat as her arms were crossed against her chest.

I sighed and decided to apologize. She didn't deserve my anger, even if she was being annoying. She hadn't done anything wrong to me. She hadn't hurt me.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that," I said.

"That comment about the b-brothel was rude and inappropriate," she said timidly.

"I know and I'm sorry."

After that it had been quiet. She didn't say anything anymore and I was more than fine with that. But in the silence I couldn't stop myself from thinking about all that had happened so far in my life. I was beginning to get depressed, and angry. Angry with the people that had hurt me, and angry with myself for letting that happen. I couldn't take the silence anymore. My thoughts felt like they were drowning me, overwhelming me.

I stood up and went towards the end of the compartment and since this was the last train box there was a door that led you outside when open.

I hadn't noticed the conductor that was approaching our seats, asking people to show him their tickets. He saw me leave and tried calling out to me but I didn't notice. Instead, the girl, Hinata, showed him her ticket.

For a few minutes, I stood by the door. Surprisingly, it wasn't locked so I opened it, and began staring at the disappearing tracks underneath the train. I could feel myself leaning forward mindlessly, without thinking of the consequences. It was so loud outside, and the breeze felt nice on my face.

Before I could go any further, someone had grabbed the back of my suit and jerked me inside. The conductor closed the door as Hinata spoke to me, but I couldn't hear a single word she was saying at first.

"Ticket? Where's your ticket? He needs to see it." She was sounding out the words now but I could hear her perfectly fine by then.

"I don't have it," I replied.

Hinata's eyes widened a little and she leaned in to whisper,

"You don't have it, or you didn't buy it?" In response I just shook my head.

"Young man, I need to see your ticket," said the old conductor as he held out his hand.

Hinata turned to look at the conductor behind her in panic.

"Uhh… umm, y-you see...haha," she laughed nervously.

After a few minutes, we were back in our seats while Hinata was pleading my case to the conductor to convince him to not give me a fine.

"L-look, sir, t-this man is going through a lot in his life right n-now," she lied. She couldn't have known what was going on in my life. "He j-just lost his job," or did she?

"Hmm," was all that the conductor said, but it did not seem like he was changing his mind since he kept searching his bag for a fine to write up.

"A-and his g-girlfriend left him because of that… For his b-best friend!" She was good. Even if the timeline wasn't right, how did she know?

Funny how even strangers can guess what's wrong when they don't even know the situation. How could I be so stupid to not notice it before it even happened to me?

"Alright, I'll let him go this time," Hinata let out a 'whew', "But he still needs to have a ticket. I'll just have to give him one now," said the conductor.

"Great!" exclaimed Hinata.

"Where to?" the conductor asked me.

"What?" I asked.

"Till where do you want me to write the ticket for? What's your destination?" asked the conductor again.

"Uh… Where does this train go until?" was my genius response.

The man gave me a skeptical look, while Hinata just slapped her palm to her forehead.

"O…K… I'm writing the ticket for Hidden Mist village, the last stop on this train." He ripped out the ticket and gave it to me before saying, "Take care of yourself, alright?" He patted my back when I took the ticket from him. "And be careful on the next stop. It's in the Sound village. It'll be late when the train makes a stop there so I suggest both of you guys stay inside. It's a pretty shady area, especially at night."

"Thank you so much! We'll keep that in mind when we get there. Good night!" said Hinata. The conductor only nodded in reply and left.

As soon as the conductor was far away, Hinata turned in her seat to look at me with wide eyes.

"Hey, so is something going on?" she asked, almost as a whisper.

I just kept looking at her without giving a response.

"If you need to talk, I'm here," I rolled my eyes at this. Yeah, only if she could shut her mouth every once in a while, I might get a chance to say something.

"H-hey! I'm a very good listener!" she said when she saw me roll my eyes. "I usually don't talk that much. I was just so excited to go home. All of my friends always confide in me because I listen. And I'll listen to you too. That is, if you want to share with me."

I looked at her for a while when she stopped talking. For some reason, in my head, I was actually contemplating her offer. And somehow she knew this since she just stared at me, anticipating my answer.

She seemed genuine in her offer, but in the end I decided against it. It was probably better if I kept to myself. If I involve any more people, they'll just deceive and betray me too. How could this girl be any different?

I looked away from her towards the window as a sign of me rejecting her offer. She sighed and leaned back into her seat.

It was quiet again, but this time I refrained from thinking about anything. I just stared out into the darkness trying to make out any shapes in the shadow.

After an hour or so Hinata went in to the restroom to change into her sleeping attire, which was just some sweats and an oversized t-shirt. She made her bed that was above her seat on her side.

Soon after saying goodnight, she was asleep with a blanket from home on top of her. After a little while I could hear her talking in her sleep. It was kind of funny listening in on the nonsense she was saying. She seemed friendly and she was considerate enough to not make a conversation after I harshly told her that I did not want to.

In about an hour or so, the train stopped at the station for Sound village.

I hadn't slept at all. I couldn't sleep. Even though I had stopped myself from thinking about Naruto, Sakura or my brother, I still could not relax enough to sleep.

When the train stopped at the station, I decided to head out for a walk. I took off my coat and swung it over my shoulder as I walked away from the train.

After a few minutes, the train let out a noise to signify that it was going to leave the station soon. As soon as that happened, someone grabbed my arm and tried to spin me around.

My instincts kicked in, and I was about to punch the person behind me. But then I recognized the person as the girl from the train, Hinata. She was pointing at the train frantically.

"Come on! We have to go! The train is about to leave!" She pulled at my arm but I pulled back. She stared at me when I did that but I just shook my head. Her eyes widened at my response, and she let out a frustrated groan.

"Oh my god!" she yelled as she ran back towards the train hoping that she would make it back in time before the doors closed and the train left.

I couldn't care less about her so I continued walking around the station aimlessly. It was past midnight by now, everything seemed so quiet.

Soon enough, it wasn't quiet anymore as a loud crash echoed in the empty station. I tried looking for the source of the sound.

There, about 50 feet away, at one of the vendor's stall, a man was yelling at someone who had just knocked down a shelf outside his store. The person who knocked his shelf was… Hinata. Oh shit! She missed her train didn't she? She looked like she was about to cry.

As soon as I realized who it was, Hinata found me and started running towards me while the man kept yelling at her to come back. Her face changed from scared to pissed but I didn't wait for her come any closer. Instead I started running too, until I reached a dead end.

"This is all your fault!" yelled Hinata when she caught up to me.

"How is this my fault? I didn't ask you to get off the train. You should've just left me alone," I casually replied.

"W-wha... I was trying to help you!"

"Well, nobody asked you to," I said as I glared at her.

She threw her hands up in defeat at my response and started to walk away. "I'll have to wait for the next train to arrive then." I just shrugged and went the opposite way towards the exit.

As I was walking away, I saw some random guys that were roaming around the station. Some of them started staring at her while the others were throwing lewd comments at her. It didn't help that she was alone and in her sleeping clothes even if they were modest.

I lingered around a little bit just to make sure they didn't do anything to her. I didn't want to be held responsible if something did happen to her.

She ignored all of the guys who were saying crude things around her but she could still hear them. She blushed madly at what they were saying, but tried to keep a scowl on her face to not let them see how terrified she was on the inside.

"Oh, look, the kitty is blushing!" said one of the guys as they were standing by her side at a distance. No one dared to go near her, but that didn't stop them from having their fun.

"Aww, you scared? You want me to pet you to make you feel better. Hey, you guys bet me to pet the pussy here? I wonder what her fur is like. Maybe it's wet." The guys chortled at this and some even snorted, but Hinata had had enough.

She tried giving them a glare to shut them up and then stormed out of the station. She even bumped into me when she passed by me. I guess she was upset that I didn't help her.

I smirked as I followed her, but when we got out, Hinata stormed off to a bus stop on the corner of the sidewalk where there were some women standing around, waiting for whatever reason at 1am.

I started walking on the sidewalk away from the station. She wasn't my responsibility so I don't need to worry about her. She's big enough to handle herself.

Surely, not even five minutes after I left her, I see her speed walking towards me. There was a man on a motorbike that was slowly following her as she kept walking away from him.

"Come on, sweetheart, get on. It's just one night. I'll pay you well," said the man.

"N-no, you're m-mistaken! I'm not t-that!" said Hinata to the man as she furiously made her way towards me.

I had stopped and waited for her to catch up. I cannot get rid of this girl can I? And how come I leave her for five minutes and she's already gotten herself in trouble.

"What're you talking about?" said the man as he drove his bike slowly to keep up with Hinata.

"Please, l-leave me alone. I'm n-not what you're thinking," she said.

"Oh," said the man as he stopped his bike, "You're a dude?" he asked with an incredulous look on his face.

Hinata only blushed at that but made her way faster towards me, and when she did reach me, she hugged me until the other guy left.

"What're you doing here?" I asked as I pushed her off of me, "Aren't you waiting for the next train? You're gonna miss it if you stay out here."

"It's not c-coming until the morning, and this p-place is too scary," whined Hinata as her bottom lip quivered. Don't tell me she's going to start crying now.

I groaned as I brought my hand to my face and then ran my fingers through my hair.

"What's the next station the train is supposed to stop at?" I asked.

"Land of Iron!" she beamed at what I was about to suggest.

"If we drive right now, we might be able to reach the next stop before the train leaves the station."

"Yes, you're right! Let's go!"

We ran back to the station where there had been some taxis waiting. Soon we found one and knocked on its window. The driver had been asleep, probably waiting to catch business early morning.

"Hello," yawned the driver as he unlocked the doors. Hinata sat in the backseat while I quickly made my way to the passenger seat. "Where to?" he asked.

"Land of Iron," I replied.

"That's a three hour journey. You sure? You can just wait for the train –"

"We don't have time, that's why we're here. Now will you drive us?"

"Sure, as long as you pay me," said the driver as he buckled his seatbelt and took out his keys.

After starting the car, the man lit up an incense as he began making a praying for five minutes to all the gods and goddesses for giving him a business and for a safe journey.

"We don't have time for this. Hurry up!" groaned Hinata from the backseat.

"I will, but I need to make a prayer for a safe drive. I have never been in a single accident, and it's all because of the gods and goddesses that have shown me mercy and grace."

"Yes, yes, we get it. Drive safe, but please start driving, at least," said Hinata.

"Ok, lets go," said the driver.

About 20 minutes had passed and the driver was driving. Oh, he was driving. But he was going more than 10 below the speed limit.

"This is going so slow! Can't you hurry up?" asked Hinata.

"No ma'am! I have never been in an accident. How do you think that happened? Well, because I was such a safe driver. I always drive below the speed limit to prevent any harm to this car, and I'm not planning on breaking my rule just for you. If you wanted to hurry up then you should've been at the station on time," chided the driver.

"But this is way too slow! You can actually get a ticket for going too slow," said Hinata.

"Stop the car," I said.

"Ok," said the driver.

"What!? No we still have a long way to go. You can't stop here," said Hinata.

"Get out," I said.

"Yeah lady, you heard him. Get out. Even he knows the importance of safe driv –"

"Not her. You," I pointed right in his face as I cut him off. He gulped and got out of the car, while I did the same. "We're switching," I said as I sat in the driver's seat. The driver was now in the passenger seat panicking.

I started the car and drove faster, way faster than what he had been driving at before.

"Yes! Now see, this is how you drive a car!" said Hinata.

"B-but what if he gets in an accident," whimpered the driver at the speed I was driving the car at. I was well over the speed limit now.

"Don't worry about that! This guy right here, he'll cover for everything. If you get any kind of damage just bill him. He will take full responsibility of it," said Hinata a bit too eagerly.

I glared at her through the rearview mirror, but she paid no attention to it. Who does she think she is making claims like that?

I drove the taxi as fast as it allowed until we reached the land of Iron. The air was slightly chilly since it snows here heavily during winter, but right now it was June, so it was bearable.

Hinata and I both jumped out of the car as soon as it was parked. We ran inside the station to make sure we had made it on time. Luckily we did!

The driver had run after us too since we, no _I_ , forgot to pay him. He was desperately demanding for his money so he could leave us as soon as possible.

"I'll pay him," I said to Hinata as I pointed to the driver, "Now, _please_ , go to the train before you miss this one too."

"Ok… Ok," she panted, " I just need some water. Can I borrow some money?"

I just rolled my eyes at her but I still gave her some cash.

"Now, go!"

"Ok, bye!" she rushed off but abruptly stopped to look at me again. "Thank you," she said with a smile, and then she ran towards the train. I stared at her retreating form for a few minutes but then just shook my head and went back to pay the driver who was waiting outside the station.

After paying him, I started wandering the streets again. I had never been to this place before but somehow it felt the same as walking through the empty streets of Konoha. Soon my thoughts were threatening to go back to a dark place where it was just an endless cycle of hate and depression.

That feeling was the same all over again. The same feeling of despair that had led me to wander around Konoha until I ended up in a train station. I wonder where I'll end up here.

I wasn't able to think much on it since someone started yelling at me. I looked around to see who it was.

"HEY! WAIT! STOP!"

I could feel my eyes widen as I gaped at the girl who was frantically waving her hand and yelling. She was running towards me and since I was stuck to the ground at the moment, all I could do was stare while she caught up to me. When she did, she hugged me. This time it was different. She hugged me really tight as if I was her lifeline. Also, there was no one around to see, so she wasn't doing it to get rid of someone.

I was too shocked to react so I just let her hug me until she let me go.

"Thank you god! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Never have I ever been so happy to see a stranger before."

"You missed the train! Again!? After all the trouble we went through!" I yelled at her.

"Ehehe…uhh," she laughed nervously while scratching her cheek. I could see that she was crying before she found me since her eyes were still wet.

"What happened?" I sighed.

"W-well… after you left, I went to by a water bottle, since the train was still there. The guy was charging me way too m-much for it. Everywhere it's only dollar but he was charging me a dollar and 25 cents! I told him to pay me back but he wasn't so it was his fault."

"You could've just left the 25 cents."

"N-no! It's the principle of the matter. He shouldn't be charging so m-much at a train station because people there are then forced to buy it at such an overcharged price. He's t-taking advantage of these people."

"So you basically missed the train for 25 cents," I stated with no hint of amusement.

"Oh, uhh… well if you p-put it that way…" Hinata laughed nervously again while I just rolled my eyes at her.

There was no point in arguing and making this situation any worse than it was. I could tell she was terrified of the circumstances she was in and somehow it was kind of satisfying to see that I wasn't the only one whose life wasn't going perfectly, even if hers wasn't as bad as mine.

"Let's go. We need to inform someone at the station to take off your luggage at the next stop, and keep it somewhere safe there," I said while figuring out how to help her. To be honest, I did feel guilty about the ordeal she was in since she was here because she had only tried helping me.

"And then we'll go there to get them? And from there you'll take me all the way to my home in Suna?" said Hinata excitedly. The tears had dried but her eyes were still a little red.

"Hold on. Who said anything about 'we'? _You_ are going to do that. I'm just helping you figure out what to do."

"You would leave a girl alone this late at night in a strange town? Do you know how dangerous that is? A girl alone in the middle of the night is like an open treasure chest. It could tempt anyone, and you are going to leave me alone knowing this. You might as well just throw me to the wolves to end my misery." I winced at her dramatics.

"Who the hell told you this?"

"Oh... a guard at the station... He seemed a bit drunk when he was saying that. I just asked him for help and he started saying all this stuff... But it's still doesn't make it any less true. This is all your fault, so why shouldn't you take responsibility for it?"

I thought about what I should do next as I heard her talk. Should I help her? But I don't know her. We're complete strangers. I don't have any obligations to her. Well she did get in this situation because she was trying to help me, but I didn't ask her to. But, I can't really leave her in some random town at 4am.

"Fine! I'll help you get your luggage and then take you to Suna," I relented in the end.

"Thank you so much!" she said with such a bright smile that I wondered if it could blind me if I kept staring.

To be honest, I was helping her not just because I felt obliged to, but also that I was too afraid to let my emotions engulf me in my loneliness. I needed something to keep my mind busy, so what better way than this.

"Oh, by the way, you never told me your name. You know mine. It's Hinata, just in case you forgot," I didn't, I just chose not to call her that, "but this entire time I didn't know yours." She waited for me to answer, and eventually I told her, but I decided to keep my last name hidden. I didn't know hers, and if she knew mine then it would only make things complicated. It's not everyday that you get to meet an Uchiha that inherited half the Uchiha Company. Well not anymore, I guess, since I don't own anything in the company.

"Sasuke."

"Nice to meet you, Sasuke." It sounded nice hearing her say my name so softly.

I didn't know it then, but this girl was going to change my life.


	2. The journey

I'm glad people are enjoying the story. It makes me happy!  
This chapter, I would say, is more like filler to the story, but it is there to show interaction between the characters to make them familiar.  
I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

"You know, y-years from now we'll p-probably be laughing at this so hard that our ribs will hurt, d-don't you think?... Ahaha…" Hinata said nervously as she could see the growing frown on my face.

What did I just get myself into?

We had just informed the station at the next stop for the train to take out Hinata's luggage and keep it secured in the office until we could pick it up.

I decided to take out some more cash from my account if I was going to take Hinata to her home. Staring at the ATM inside the train station, my heart was slowly sinking, and my frown growing. It was as if I just remembered that I got fired not too long ago. How am I going to afford this? I'm not earning any money and my savings are limited. The trip to Suna is at least a few days long by road.

I'm really regretting this decision right now.

"Hey, if money is the issue, then don't worry. As soon as we get to my home in Suna I'll pay you back for all the expenses," said Hinata with a smile while standing right behind me.

"Are you staring at my bank account over my shoulder?" I raised an eyebrow as I asked.

"N-no! I just didn't want to b-burden you too much since you are helping me."

Honestly, it would be wise to take her offer since I shouldn't be spending so much money, but my stubborn pride could not let me seem weak, even in front of a stranger.

"No, I don't need your money," I said as I placed some cash from the ATM in my wallet. "Let's go. It's too late, and we need a place to stay so we can catch up on some sleep before we go to the next station.

Hinata nodded at this and followed me out of the station. In the parking lot I could still see the taxi where I had parked it earlier when we first got here.

"Maybe we can ask that driver. He might be willing to help us again," I said to Hinata as I pointed my head towards the taxi.

"Yeah, you're right. He did seem nice."

We made our way towards the taxi. I could see the driver sitting inside making some kind of a prayer to a picture on his dashboard. As soon as he looked up, he saw us walking towards him. Hinata waved at him with a smile to catch his attention but instead the driver started the car, backed out of his parking spot and quickly drove off as Hinata yelled at him.

"HEY! STOP!" she yelled. "That jerk!"

"You probably scared him off," I said casually. To be honest, I saw that coming. The driver was pretty shaken when we left him.

"Me!? How could I have scared him? It was probably your stupid speeding that scared him. He was so worried about his car the entire time."

"Well, if I hadn't done that then we wouldn't have made it here on time. But I guess that didn't matter in the end since you decided to miss the train for 25 cents," I shrugged my shoulders.

"Why do you have to bring that up?" pouted Hinata as she blushed from embarrassment.

I took a deep breath before letting it out to clear my head.

"I don't see anymore taxis around here so we will have to walk to find a hotel or a lodge to stay in," I said to Hinata who was lazily kicking some rocks at her feet. She looked at me and nodded at what I said.

Soon we were walking along the road to find someplace to stay for the night. It was 4am and almost everything was closed.

We had been walking for about 20 minutes and it seemed that we were getting closer to some questionable areas.

"Oh look, Sasuke! There's a hotel there," she pointed at a place across the street almost a block away.

I looked at what she was pointing at and winced.

"Lovely Hotel," I said as I read its name that was shining brightly in pink neon lights.

"Yeah, that one. Let's go check it out," Hinata began walking towards it while I was still hesitant but in the end I followed. We didn't have much of a choice anyway.

"Hello! We would like to book a room here for one night, please," said Hinata to the man who was standing at the front desk.

This place was screaming 'shady business going on here.' Even the guy looked suspicious.

"Welcome to Lovely Hotel. It will be $50 for one night," he said before lowering his voice to ask," Or, uhm… would you like to be charged by the hour?"

I threw the money on the counter and pointed at him. "Don't even think about it. Just do what you're told," I said with a glare while Hinata began tapping her chin.

"Wait, Sasuke, wouldn't it be better if we pay by the hour?" I turned my glare to her as she continued, " It's already so late and we're not going to be here that long anyway," she said with a smile as if she came up with a brilliant idea.

Does she not know?

"No, we're not going to do that."

"But why not? It'll save so much money."

"Hinata, you don't understand what he's saying."

"I completely understand. He's saying that we can save some money if we go by the hour. Maybe _you_ don't understand," scoffed Hinata, while I just stared at her.

She really doesn't get it.

"Fine, how many hours do you think we need?" I asked with a smirk.

"Oh, umm… three hours?" I raised an eyebrow in response, "Ok, fine, Four hours? That should be enough."

The man behind the counter raised both his eyebrows at us.

"He seems like he can last that long, but can you last that long, miss?" he asked Hinata.

"What do you mean?" she said.

"Just give us the room for four hours," I said.

"Ok, here's the key," Hinata took the key and began walking towards the room while I paid.

"Hey man, where'd you find this one?" he asked as he looked at Hinata over his shoulder.

I leaned in with an elbow on the counter.

"On the train," I smirked.

"No way…" said the guy as I walked away from him with a chuckle.

"What were you guys whispering about?" asked Hinata as I walked into the room. She was sitting on the bed with her arms wrapped around her legs to her chest while eyeing me suspiciously.

"Nothing. Just… guy stuff."

"I know Tae Kwando," she said abruptly.

"Ok…"

"Yeah, so don't even try anything on me."

"I... wasn't going to," I said as if it was obvious.

"Good, because even if you did you wouldn't get far without a broken nose and some other parts." I raised an eyebrow but then just shook my head.

This girl was interesting.

It was quiet for a few minutes while we had a little staring contest until Hinata spoke again.

"So what's going on with you, Sasuke?"

"What do you mean?" I frowned.

"Well… anybody would find it weird that a guy gets on a train and doesn't even know where he's going… Then he just randomly gets off and starts wandering around in the middle of the night."

"Oh, so you think you can help me since you have me all figured out?" I asked, as I stood straighter in front of her with my hand fisted at my sides. Why was I becoming so defensive?

"I don't have you figured out, that's why I'm asking. I only want to help because I'm worried," she said, as she also stood up from the bed.

"Why would you worry over a stranger?" I asked, honestly confused by her concern.

"I saw how you were leaning out of the train earlier, when the conductor came around. If I hadn't caught your shirt, you would've fallen out of a moving train." Her eyes were wide and I could see her worry in them. "Sasuke, if you're contemplating suicide –"

"I'm not," I cut her off, "I was just…distracted." I couldn't look her in the eye knowing that she saw me in such a delusive and weak state.

"Tell me what's wrong," she said softly as she placed a hand on my shoulder to urge me to look at her. It was so tempting to just talk to someone, especially her, since I could see her promise to not judge and just listen. Even though I wanted to, my pride would not allow me to pour my heart out like some kind of a hormonal teenage girl who had just been dumped. I certainly felt like one.

I don't even know when was the last time I actually cried.

"Is it about a girl?" my eyes widened a bit at her question but I hid it hoping she wouldn't see the slight shock on my face. "It is, right?" Shit, she saw through me.

I sighed and let my shoulders drop a little as I leaned against the nightstand.

"Yes," I relented in the end because it would be easier to talk about this than have her keep annoying me until she finds out about what my brother did. "When we were younger… she always used to ask me out and say that she loved me, so I decided to go out with her.

"I thought we were doing well. I even told her that I loved her, which I've never said to anyone before… But in the end she left me to go be with my best friend." I moved to sit on a couch as I said this.

I said more than I thought I would say. Oh god, I probably sounded like some lovesick guy still hung up on his ex.

"Do you have a picture of her?" she asked while squatting next to the couch I was on.

"Why?"

"Just tell me if you have a picture of her or not."

I rolled my eyes at her persistence but remembered that Sakura had hidden a picture of her in my wallet while we were still together. She had said that it was for whenever I missed her. I never found the picture because I never really go through my wallet so extensively. Knowing her, she must have hidden it somewhere I wouldn't find it easily because she knew I would've taken it out.

I took out my wallet and started taking all its contents out. When everything was out on the table I found what I was looking for. Inside one of the grooves for your cards was a small Polaroid picture of her. She looked different in it. She was smiling.

Before I could stare at it any longer, Hinata took the picture from my hand.

"She's pretty," she whispered before turning to go through all the drawers in the room.

"What are you doing?" I went after her.

"Where is it? Aha!" She said as she slammed the drawer. "Hold out your hand." I raised my eyebrow but did what she told me to.

In my hand, she placed Sakura's picture back, with a matchbox.

"What is this?" I asked hesitantly.

"What does it look like, a matchbox, of course," she rolled her eyes at how obvious it was. "You're going to burn her picture."

"W-what!?" my eyes widened. Is this girl crazy?

"You're going to burn her picture. She hurt you and you need to get over her."

She opened the matchbox and lit a match while urging me to hold out the picture to burn.

"This is crazy. I'm not doing this," I tried walking away but she held my arm as she blew out the match.

"Trust me! This will help you get over her." She held out the matchbox again. "Whenever I got dumped, I would just burn the guy's pictures to get over them. It's very cathartic!"

This girl is even crazier than I thought. She's a pyromaniac!

"I'm not going to let go until you do this," damn she had a death like grip on my arm, "I can see how much you're hurting. You need to get over them and let go of all the hate you're holding on to."

I stopped struggling at that. Have I been holding on for all this time? Is that really why it hurts whenever I think about them?

"Hey," she nudged my arm to get my attention, but I just frowned.

"I'm over them. You're stupid if you think they have any effect on me whatsoever. I'll prove it." I snatched the matchbox out of her hand and lit up a match. Slowly I hovered Sakura's picture over it until it caught fire. I watched as the flame engulfed her face in the picture.

Hinata pulled me to the restroom as I held the burning picture.

"Now flush it down the toilet," she said to which I just looked at her weirdly. "Flush her out of your life."

I stared at the picture one more time before dropping it in the toilet and flushing it.

"There you go! Now, how does it feel?" asked Hinata.

I just stared at the half burned picture as it disappeared into the toilet. Somehow my chest did feel lighter than it had been for the past few weeks. This really is cathartic.

I looked up at Hinata and smirked in response. She jumped up in excitement before someone started banging on our door.

"HURRY UP!" someone yelled from behind the door.

I opened it to find the man we had seen earlier at the front desk. He was panicking.

"You need to hurry up and get out of here. The police are on its way! It's a police raid!" he yelled as he went to knock and yell to the other rooms.

"What's going on?" asked Hinata as she walked up to the door.

"We need to leave," I went back in to grab my wallet and everything that I had taken out.

"But why?" Hinata was confused by my haste.

"No time to explain. Just trust me. We need to leave this place as soon as possible," I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room. Everyone was coming out of their rooms and running down the hall. There's probably a back exit down there.

I pulled Hinata behind me as we ran. Most of the people running with us were half naked which made Hinata blush.

"Why are there so many couples? And why are they all half dressed?" Hinata whispered as she lowered her gaze.

This girl really is too naïve.

"Hurry up, Hinata." I pulled on her hand to make her run faster.

"Sasuke, why are we running? Why is everyone running? What's going on?" Hinata sounded scared but I didn't have time to explain to her right now. Instead I kept running until I found the door that led outside to the back of the hotel.

I took her out the back door to where the front desk guy was pointing. There were a few people running out to the other side of the street through the bushes that surrounded the hotel.

"There are some taxis over there. You can take them to get away from here," he said.

"But why isn't anybody telling me why we're running?!" yelled Hinata. I placed my hand over her mouth to keep her quiet.

"Lady, you are a piece of work… and if circumstances were different, I would've given anything to spend a night with you too. But alas, our fate isn't like that, so I'll just hope that we meet again. Maybe on a train," the guy winked and blew a kiss to Hinata as I pulled her away.

"What a weird guy," she said but I just shook my head.

We ran to the nearest taxi and frantically knocked on the window. The driver inside woke up and unlocked the doors. Hinata sat in the backseat while I sat in the front.

"Where to?" yawned the driver.

"It's you!" yelled Hinata.

The driver's eyes widened as he stared at Hinata through his rearview mirror. Then he gulped and turned his head to look at me while I gave him a smirk.

"Get out of this car!" he screamed, "Oh gods and goddesses, please have mercy on me! Please take me out of this nightmare!" the driver kept praying with his eyes closed. He opened one eye to look at me but shut it right back when he saw that I was still there.

"Look, we just need to go somewhere. You can go as slow as you want but just take us out of this shitty place," I said hoping that the driver would agree. "I'll pay you double."

"OK! Where w-would you l-like to g-g-go?" he asked as he tried to hide his panic.

"Just take us to the nearest bus station here," I told the driver.

Soon we were sitting inside a bus while I was looking over the bus tickets I had just bought.

"So we need to get your luggage from the Land of Waves first then go all the way to Suna." I was going over the plan in my head.

"Yup!" said Hinata. She was sitting in the seat that was towards the aisle while I sat in the seat right next to hers, by the window.

"The bus driver said that our bus will leave at 8 in the morning so we can stay in here until then. That's three hours from now. We should get some sleep since it's a long journey by road from here to the Land of Waves."

"Mhmm," said Hinata. She was being really quiet for the past 20 minutes. She didn't even ask about the run from the hotel anymore. Hopefully her attention span wasn't that long to remember it.

"Sasuke, what do you think about me?" she asked after a few minutes.

"Uh…why are you asking?" I said while opening the water bottle I had bought from a vending machine earlier.

"Just tell me. Do you like me?"

I almost choked over the water.

"What!?"

"I mean, do you like my personality, and all?" this didn't sound any better. "I'm just asking because I have a cousin who is just like me and I want to set you up with her!" she smiled.

Oh, I see. She's trying to play matchmaker since she thinks I have a broken heart. Fine, I'll play along.

"So you think your cousin is good enough for me?"

"Of course! If you like me then you will definitely like her!"

"But if I like you then why shouldn't I just get with you?"

"No, it has to be my cousin."

"Forget your cousin. You, and me get together and run off. That way we won't even have to go all the way to Suna."

"Tch, I'm being serious. It has to be my cousin. I can't be with you, because I already have someone I love," Hinata blushed.

I stared at her growing blush and shy smile as she thought about the person she loved. It was cute and endearing. But she'll eventually find out how stupid it is once she gets her heart broken.

"Ah, you already have someone?" she nodded, "Well too bad for me," I said with a smirk.

"No! You still have my cousin. She is just like me!" I just shook my head at her. This girl was weird.

"Idiot," I chuckled as I poked her forehead. "Stop trying to set me up. Now, go to sleep. We have a long journey ahead of us."

Hinata pouted but eventually settled in her seat to sleep.

I smiled one last time before I went to sleep as well.

In the morning, we travelled on the bus for about four hours until we reached the Land of Waves. There we got to the train station to pick up Hinata's luggage, and the first thing she did when she got them was change out of her pajamas. She was now dressed in a simple yellow t-shirt and a pair of light blue jeans.

"Ok, now off we go to Suna!" yelled Hinata as she pointed in some random direction.

"Yeah, well first we need to buy the tickets. The next train that leaves for Suna from here is in 3 hours."

"Oh, 3 hours? We have lots of time then. Why don't we roam around town here? I've never really been to the Land of Waves before." Just then Hinata's stomach made a rumbling noise.

"Was that your stomach?" I asked even though I knew it was.

"No, I didn't hear anything…" she tried avoiding eye contact. "We have so much time so why not move around a little. Maybe go to a restaurant, you know, eat some food or something." Her stomach rumbled again while her whole face went red with embarrassment. I just laughed at her. "Hey, stop laughing," She tried to punch my arm but failed as I easily dodged it.

"Fine, we'll go eat something," I chuckled one last time as she pouted. It was so easy to tease her.

She rented one of the lockers at the station to place her luggage in while we went out to eat.

An hour after eating, we were walking on the road by the ocean when Hinata saw a carnival on the pier.

"Sasuke, lets go there!" she tugged on my sleeve as she pulled me behind her.

It was interesting seeing so many colors painted and dancing around in all the booths there. People were playing games or buying food from the vendors there.

As soon as we got to the carnival Hinata ran off like a kid and went to the first stall she could find. She bought herself some cotton candy and played a few games. She even won some prizes. I followed her just to make sure I didn't lose sight of her, but I kept an eye on my watch so we could make it to our train on time.

"Would you like to play something?" asked one of the vendors. I shook my head in response. "Come on! You can win something for the pretty lady with you. What better way to remember a date than a giant stuffed gorilla!"

"We're not on a date," I replied immediately but he didn't listen since Hinata got too excited about the gorilla.

She played that game for half an hour until she finally gave up.

"Sasuke, are you having fun?"

"Hn."

"I wish I could come here with Toneri," sighed Hinata. "He's been getting really busy with his new business, and I haven't seen him for six months!"

"Who's Toneri?" I asked before I could stop myself. I didn't really want to find out about her love life while mine was down the drain.

"Oh, he's my boyfriend," she blushed, "I met him at the university in Konoha when I was studying there. He's the sweetest guy ever! He's starting his new business in the Land of Tea right now so I haven't been able to see or talk to him much. But we promised each other that we will get married when his business is settled and stable," she smiled.

Listening to her makes me kind of sad since things didn't turn out so perfectly for me. But that's ok. She's too naïve to realize how the world actually works. Your world shouldn't rely on someone else's promises to you, and you hope for them. You can't always just put your faith in them, because eventually they will betray you, and break your heart. But she wouldn't understand that.

Hinata began daydreaming for a few minutes before she asked.

"Sasuke, why aren't you playing something?" She was heading to the goldfish-scooping booth now.

"I don't want to. We should probably head back to the train station now." Hinata nodded at that and got up to leave.

She was carrying a bag of cotton candy and two stuffed animals that she had won. She was eating her cotton candy on the way and offered me some, but I declined.

"I don't like sweets."

"Really? How come?"

"I just don't like how they taste," I shrugged.

"So you don't eat any sweets at all? Not even fruits?"

"Some fruits are okay, I guess."

"What's your favorite?"

"Tomatoes."

"Tomatoes?" She said in surprise, "But they're not even a fruit." I glared at her.

"I'm not going to have this argument with you," but that didn't stop her as she continued to argue with me on how tomatoes were a vegetable all the way to the train station.

We finally got to our train and took our seats when the train started moving. Hinata was taking a nap at this point while I just stared out the window, enjoying the view of the sunset outside.

The train was going to pass over a bridge in the Land of Waves called 'The Great Naruto' bridge, and looking at it now brought back a memory from when I came here as a child with Naruto and Sakura. Naruto had been constantly boasting to Sakura that he had a bridge named after him but Sakura had been so annoyed by his pestering that she threatened to throw him off his own namesake bridge. Thinking about it now made me laugh more than ever.

It was only yesterday when I felt so lost and despondent at how my life was going. I couldn't think about anyone in my life without feeling angry and depressed. But now nothing of the sort happened when I thought about Naruto and Sakura. It actually made me smile thinking about the time we spent together as friends. And, dare I say, I almost miss them.

When it started to get dark outside, Hinata mumbled something about a 'stupid toner' in her sleep. Is she dreaming about printers now? This girl was weird, but interesting. I wonder if her family is just the same or if she's the only insane one.

With that last thought, I decided to sleep as well.

In the morning, we were going to be in Suna. Hinata was going to be at her home soon. That meant that I would be done with my promise to take her home safely. I might never see her after that, and somehow I am unsettled by this.


	3. Meet the family

We're getting close to the middle of the story now! Maybe. Actually I'm not too sure.

I feel like I might be dragging the story out but whenever I write it just flows for me like this. I hope you guys stick around even if the story might seem boring at some points but that's where feedback is much appreciated! Thank you to everyone that left a review for the story. You guys are awesome!

* * *

"Oh my god! Everyone, it's Hinata! She's here!" as soon as we got to the gates of her compound someone came rushing out yelling. Now, everyone was hogging at the entrance to greet Hinata.

The compound was pretty big but it was in a small town on the outskirts of Suna, so technically it wasn't even in Suna.

"Hinata, we were so worried when we found out that you missed your train in the Sound Village. Thank god you're okay!" an old lady said as she hugged Hinata tightly. How did they find out about her missing the train? I guess the question I was thinking showed on my face because Hinata answered it.

"Oh, I used your cellphone, when you were asleep in the bus, to tell my family so they would know I was coming later. I hope that was okay," she smiled at me even as I glared at her.

Slowly we made our way inside the gates to the front yard, but people were still surrounding us as they greeted Hinata but gave me weird looks. How many people lived in this place? It was pretty big.

"Ooh! Hinata brought home a boyfriend!" yelled a little girl who was crushing Hinata in a hug. She began jumping and pointing at me but I raised my hands and frantically shook my head to deny her claims.

As soon as she yelled, everyone turned their heads to look at me with those same pale grey eyes as Hinata. Seriously, everyone had those eyes. Is it a family trait?

"No Hanabi! Everyone, this is my friend Sasuke. I met him on the train from Konoha. He helped me get here safely all the way from the Sound Village." Hinata introduced me to everyone as they kept staring. I was getting nervous at their silence and constant staring so I gave a small wave which made them erupt in cheers. Now everyone was greeting me like I was their best friend or something.

"Sasuke, man! You're such an awesome guy!"

"Thank you for getting Hinata home safely."

"Yeah, you must stay here with us for a few days," one man suggested.

"Oh no! That's totally unnecessary. I was just going to drop her off and head out," I tried rejecting their hospitality as nicely as possible.

"You took care of our princess. The least we can do is return your kindness."

"There's no need for that! I was just trying to be a... uh... good citizen. Ahaha," these people were so aggressive in persuading that it was scary.

"Nonsense! You shall stay here and that's final!" said an old lady as she pounded her walking stick in the ground. I gulped in fear. These people can't seriously force me to stay?

"Ok everyone, that's enough with the greetings. Hinata, your father is waiting inside to meet you and your…. guest," the man looked at me suspiciously but I tried to keep myself calm.

"Thank you uncle Hizashi. We'll go see him now. Come on Sasuke," Hinata grabbed my hand and pulled me inside towards one of the entrances to the compound.

When she grabbed my hand, I could feel everyone's eyes on us. What is this girl doing giving everyone the wrong idea?!

"Hello father," said Hinata as she ran to her father to give him a hug. The man looked almost identical to her uncle outside.

I stood right next to her when she backed away to stand in front of her father, and for some reason I almost feared for my life. This shouldn't be a big deal, right? It's not like I'm asking her father for her hand in marriage or something. Damn! Why am I so nervous!?

"Hinata, I'm glad that you made it home safely," he then turned to look at me with his steely-eyed gaze, "I see you brought a boy with you." Boy? I'll be turning 25 in July. Who the hell is he calling a boy?

I stood a bit straighter as he kept his gaze on me.

"Father, this is Sasuke."

"So is he your boyfriend?" I froze because I was too nervous to respond.

"No, father! He's just a friend."

"A friend? With a boy?! I don't believe you! Hinata, I know how people are in a big city like Konoha."

"No, he's just a friend, father."

"Don't think you can be clever with me! Why else would you bring him home, Hinata? Are you pregnant!?" yelled her father.

"No father! You're embarrassing me," she said while blushing, "He's just a friend! I met him on the train and he was there to help me when I missed my train all the way in the Sound Village, in the middle of the night!"

"Hn," was all he said but it seemed that he had cooled down a bit.

Wow. He's a real stickler. Complete opposite of Hinata. A stickler with a giant stick up his –

"So what do you do, boy?" he asked me, halting my train of thought.

"Uhh… I, uh," what should I say? I don't have a job! "I'm a… freelancer…?" he just gave me a weird look but did not ask any further.

"We will be having dinner soon. You should join us," I just nodded before he dismissed us.

Afterwards, somebody lead me to my room while Hinata went off to god knows where. I took a shower and changed into some clothes they gave me since I didn't have any clothes with me.

I took out my phone while I was changing and saw that I had several missed calls. Most of them were from my lawyer, probably trying to figure out what to do since I lost everything. There was no call from my father or my brother. It wasn't surprising since my brother fired me but I guess my father couldn't care about his other son either.

I sat on the bed, shirtless, with my elbows on my knees, and phone in one hand. I was trying to scroll through all my voicemails, deleting most of them. Lawyer, delete. Lawyer, delete. Lawyer, delete. God, this guy! How many voicemails did he leave?

Sliding my thumb up on my phone's screen I came across the last name I was expecting to see right now.

Mom.

She had left me a voicemail and it was left on the day I got fired. I have her number blocked so my phone probably didn't show it when she called, but instead sent her straight to voicemail. It was probably a good thing that I didn't get to talk to her because it would've just made it worse. But now, staring at her voicemail, I didn't know what to do. Should I listen to it? Should I delete it? Somehow the idea of deleting it didn't sit right with me.

I'm not a sentimental guy but it has been more than two years since I last heard from my mom. The last time was a few weeks after my college graduation. At that time I was still sore over Sakura leaving me so I had taken out my anger at my mom. I had yelled at her, called her a horrible mother for leaving her family, and told her that I did not want to see her ever again. I still believe I was right in my opinions but seeing her pained expression on the words I had yelled at her still troubles me.

She always used to try and stay in touch with Itachi and me, but after that I hadn't heard from her until now. I wonder why she called on that day. Did she know I got fired?

Hesitantly, I pressed the play button and brought the phone closer to my ear to listen to her message.

"Sasuke… I don't know if you're getting this but… I have to see you… I miss you… I really need to talk you, so please call me… I love you –" the message ended there abruptly.

I held the phone in my hand as I kept staring at its black screen. The message was so vague. She just wanted to talk to me?

Just then someone opened the door and popped their head in. It was a girl who looked about my age, maybe a little younger. I wasn't sure. As soon as she saw my state of undress since I didn't have my shirt on, her face turned several shades of red before she uttered a word.

"U-um, d-dinner is r-ready. Uncle w-would like t-to have y-you j-j-join us. G-goodbye!" She slammed the door as she finished talking. I guess Hinata isn't the only weird one in her family.

I got dressed and headed out the room. This place was so big that it took me a few minutes to find my way. I just followed the crowd and found myself to be in a big room. People were sitting on a very large dining table chatting while serving food to each other.

"Sasuke! Come sit here," said one guy as he pointed to an empty chair right next to him.

As I walked to him I swear I heard whispers from some of the girls on the table. They kept staring at me and I felt like I was on a runway. When I took my seat, a plate of food was served to me.

Throughout the entire dinner, my plate was always filled with food because every time I finished, someone would offer me more and fill up my plate before I got a chance to reject.

Hinata giggled from the other side as she got up to leave with the girl who came to my room earlier. I tried getting up to leave as well but the guy right next to me grabbed my shoulder and pulled me down to my seat.

"Sasuke, you have to try this!"

"No, thank you. I'm very full," that was an understatement.

"But we made this just for you, Sasuke!" I tried refusing again.

"Wow, you city folk don't eat much. No wonder you're so scrawny," an old man said as he squeezed my biceps. Who the hell is he calling scrawny?

An hour later they finally let me leave the table. I walked up to my room while holding my stomach. These people literally forced me to eat so much food!

"Sasuke," whispered Hinata as she came up behind me, "What's wrong? You look like you're in pain."

"It's all your family's fault. The fed me so much food. Now I feel like my stomach is going to explode!" I groaned. Hinata just giggled at that.

"Oh, you'll be fine!" she said as she patted my back, "But listen," she continued whispering, "We have some guests coming tomorrow and I want you to stay here for that."

"Why?" I whispered back. What's so important that she's being so secretive?

"The people that are coming tomorrow are coming for me. There's going to be a guy named Gaara with them and I think my dad is trying to arrange my marriage with him."

"I thought you were going to marry that Toneri guy?"

"I will, but my dad doesn't know about him yet."

"So why don't you tell him?"

"You don't understand. My dad won't accept him because he's not from here, plus he's big on arranged marriages."

"So why do I have to be here?"

"I just don't want to face these people alone."

"I'm not going to meet your possible suitors tomorrow. This isn't my business!"

"Please," Hinata pulled a puppy-dog face trying to convince me, and I had to strain a little to keep my resolve. Only a little. "Hmph! Fine! But my family isn't going to let you leave so easily. Not if I have say in it."

"Why you –"

"Hinata, what are you doing here?" the girl from earlier came down the hall as she looked at Hinata and me suspiciously.

"Hanako!" Hinata spoke normally now, "I'm glad you're here. I wanted to introduce you to my friend Sasuke here!"

"Friend…?" she looked at me curiously, "Right. Hinata it's getting late. You should get some rest for tomorrow."

"Oh, I will. Don't worry about me. Why don't you two talk a little? Get to know each other," she winked at me, "I'm off! Goodnight! Don't stay up too late you two," she pointed at us as she walked backwards until she was gone.

"Uhh… don't mind her… she always does weird things like that" Hanako said.

"Oh, so she's always been like that?" I smirked as the other girl laughed.

"Yes, she has. Well, maybe not always, but for the most part… I'll let you sleep. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," I nodded.

"Oh and thank you for helping Hinata. She's really clumsy and kind of naïve, so I'm glad someone like you was there to help her, or else…" she shook her head as if to dispel a thought. She smiled one last time before leaving.

I thought about what Hanako said before heading into my room to sleep. It wasn't pleasant to think about what could've happened to Hinata if I wasn't there when she missed her train. Twice.

In the morning after breakfast, I decided to not leave. It wasn't like these people were stopping me but I knew that if I left so soon they would protest.

When Gaara and his family arrived, Hinata's father introduced me as their guest from Konoha. After that one encounter I did not see them again as they went in to the living room to talk. Hinata tried to discreetly grab my hand and pull me too but I dodged her attempts and walked away. I did not need to be a part of that.

It was noon now and I was roaming the fields in the back of the compound trying to avoid Hinata because I did not want to be dragged into whatever she was in right now. It would probably give the wrong idea to her father and her suitor, Gaara.

"Sasuke, right?" asked a girl who was sitting on a swing under a tree as I was passing by. She looked like she was around 16 years old. I just nodded and stopped by the tree.

"I'm Hanabi, Hinata's sister." So that's why they looked similar. "So you helped my sister when she missed her train?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Well… she needed help and I didn't feel right just leaving her in the middle of nowhere like that." Hanabi observed me while I answered as if to judge my answer. What is she getting at?

"So you decided to travel all the way to Suna with a stranger? You could've just given her some money. You didn't have to come here... Unless..."

"What?"

"You're the reason why she missed the train, right?" I didn't respond, "I knew it! It didn't make sense that some random guy decided to help my sister. And you're too hot to be my sister's boyfriend. So you probably helped her out of obligation. That whole spiel about being a 'good citizen' was just you trying to cover for your ass!"

"Fine! Yes, she missed her train because she was trying to help me so I felt guilty and brought her all the way to her home. Happy?"

"Hmm," she just shrugged her shoulders, "I was just curious."

She stayed quiet for a bit while swinging until she spoke again.

"Do you think Hinata is a bit too naïve?" I raised an eyebrow at her question. So her little sister thinks so too. I just shrugged in response not wanting to say something about her sister that might offend her. "It's just that she's too kind hearted, which always leads her in vulnerable situations. That just ends up hurting her. And she never learns either," Hanabi sighed.

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"I don't know," she shrugged, "I guess since you went overboard helping Hinata, I feel like you're an alright guy. I can trust you… with her," she smirked as she glanced at me sideways.

"What do you mean you can trust me with her?"

"Well you already met our father. So now all you need to do is ask her out. Plus if you guys date then father might go lenient on all the arranged marriages stuff. I hate the idea of arrange marraiges," she pouted.

"You know we are not dating nor are we going to date, right?"

"Not yet," she smirked.

"You can't be serious? She's meeting her possible future husband right now," what kind of fantasy is this girl coming up with in her head? After I leave this place, I'm never going to see Hinata again. That was it.

"Mhmm, _possible_ husband. Plus, you seem like the guy who wouldn't stop at anything to get what he likes," she smiled as she began swinging faster.

"I don't even like her!" is everyone crazy in Hinata's family?!

Hanabi just laughed while I scowled at her.

"You're so serious! Stop brooding and push me… Please!" Hanabi said. I just shook my head and pushed her on the swing to make her go faster. This girl is just as weird as Hinata.

A few minutes later Hinata came rushing towards us. Hanabi tried to stop the swing as she dragged her feet in the dirt.

"Hanabi! Father is looking for you! It's something about Konohamaru sneaking around in the backyard." Hanabi's eyes widened as panic laced her features. She jumped off her swing and dashed towards the compound.

As soon as Hanabi was out of view, Hinata turned towards me, and I did not like the way she was looking at me.

"You jerk! You left me!" she yelled as she pointed her finger at me and harshly poked me in my chest.

"This isn't my problem!" I rubbed where her nail poked me.

"Stop being such a pansy and tell me if somebody is walking this way." I glared at her but then looked behind her to see Gaara walking out of the compound in our direction. "Don't make it noticeable."

"What? It's just Gaara," I was about to raise my hand to call to him so I could get his attention but Hinata grabbed my shoulders and positioned me so I was standing right in front of her and her back was to Gaara.

"Just stay like this and don't look at him. Look at me," she was staring right into my eyes. I furrowed my eyebrows and gave her a questioning look, but she ignored it. "Is he looking this way?" I discreetly looked behind her to see that Gaara was staring at us now. He was making his way here.

"Yeah, he's coming this way," Hinata got closer to me, "What are you doing?" I took a step back, and she got even closer, "Stay away from me!" Then she grabbed my arms and quickly kissed my cheek before I could push her away.

My eyes widened as I felt her lips on my cheek. It was a light peck but somehow I had to control my blush at such an innocent action. She was now smiling at me with a mischievous glint in her eyes. I looked up to see Gaara charging towards us with a murderous look in his eyes. I swear I could see flames erupting from his red hair. He stopped right by the tree where we stood, seething with anger.

"Wait! T-this isn't what you think! She's just…" she kept smiling at me. I grabbed her arm and spun her around to face Gaara. "Tell him!" I yelled at her. This girl is going to get me murdered!

"Oh Gaara," she said breathlessly while blushing, "I didn't know you were there." I glared at her blatant lie.

"Stop lying! Tell him that nothing is going on here!" she looked at me through her lashes while I glared at her. "Hinata," I said threateningly, "tell him that nothing is going on between us."

"Oh, yes. He's right, there's nothing going on here… between us…nothing at all. Absolutely nothing between us," she said a little too innocently as she kept shaking her head to Gaara. I continued glaring at her. She was doing this on purpose!

Gaara shifted his eyes between Hinata and me. Before he could say anything Hanabi came into the scene yelling.

"Hinata, dad said that he didn't call me! Why would you say that he did?" she asked.

"What? That's ridiculous! I swear he was looking for you earlier. Come on, lets go find him," she grabbed Hanabi's arm and quickly walked away.

Now I was the one trying to make her stay as she slipped away. I glared at her retreating form as she glanced back at me and winked before running off with her sister.

"Uhm," Gaara cleared his throat to get my attention.

"Gaara… I swear, there is nothing going on between me and her," I tried to sound as convincing as possible.

"Then why would my Hinata do that?" he raised a nonexistent eyebrow.

"I don't know… You'd have to ask her that... But rest assured, there is nothing between us. I don't want to come between you two."

"I may not be as clever as you big city, Konoha folks, but I have eyes," he pointed to his eyes, "and I have seen enough today." He turned around and left after giving me one last glare.

I let out a long sigh as I dragged my hand across my face. What is this girl thinking? She's trying to use me to get out of this arranged marriage but she's going to get me killed at this rate. I can only hope her father doesn't find out about this.

An hour after sitting under the tree, I decided to go inside and face my retribution. I was sure Gaara would've told Hiashi about what he saw, but surprisingly everything was the same. The guests were gone and all Hiashi did when he passed me by was nod and say goodnight. Am I safe?

I didn't find Hinata anywhere either so I just went straight to my room. There I listened to my mom's voicemail again trying to figure out why she actually called. But when it was getting late I decided to go to sleep.

A few hours after I had fallen asleep, I got this feeling that someone was watching me. I got up and looked around the dark room to see what had woken me up. I was still groggy from sleep so it took me some time to process that someone was crouching on my bed right beside me.

As soon as I realized that there was an intruder, I tried to attack but the person put their hand on my mouth and told me to shush.

"Don't make so much noise. You'll wake everyone up," whispered the person.

"Hinata?" I asked in the darkness. She switched on the bedside lamp and in its low glow I saw Hinata crouching on the bed, staring at me. "What the hell do you thin–" I started saying before she shut me up by placing her hand on my mouth again.

"Stop talking so loudly," she whispered.

"Are you crazy," I whispered as I removed her hand from my mouth. "You already got Gaara thinking that there's something going on between us, and now you're sneaking into my room in the middle of the night! What are they going to think!?"

"That's the problem!" she whispered, "My plan was going so well. Gaara was going to think that there was something going on between us, and then back out of the marriage. But, now he's not backing out. Instead he wants to talk to me and get this marriage done as soon as possible. What did you say to him!?"

"Nothing! Just that there was nothing between us!"

"Ugh, I can't get married to Gaara."

"Then what're you going to do?"

"Plan B, which was technically Plan A all along but now in the light of this situation has been advanced to an earlier time. Like now."

"So… what is this plan exactly?"

"I am going to run away," she said as she grabbed the straps of her backpack on her shoulder. Just then I noticed that she was wearing a grey hoodie, unzipped to show a light purple long shirt underneath it, with black jeans and black sneakers. She was prepared to literally run. "I just came to say goodbye before I left…So goodbye!" she waved as she began to get off the bed.

"Wait a minute!" I grabbed her arm and brought her back on the bed. "If you leave, then what about me?"

"You stay here and relax maybe a few more days. Then leave whenever you want. You have nothing to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about? Are you crazy!? The last time Gaara saw me was when you kissed me and if you run away now he's going to tell everyone about it. Then everyone is going to think I had something to do with your disappearance. They're going to rip me to shreds if I stay here!"

"Okay, fine then. No big deal. You run away with me too!" She smiled at her suggestion while I just groaned. Why do I always end up in the worst situations with her?

I packed my stuff and got ready in ten minutes to head out with Hinata. Soon we were slowly walking towards the gates of the compound through the front yard.

"Hinata, is that you?" both of us paused and slowly turned to see who it was. Standing in the balcony was Hanako with a towel around her head. Damn, she saw us. "What are you guys doing?" Hinata turned to me and grabbed my hand. She ran towards the gates and pulled me right behind her as Hanako went inside yelling, "UNCLE HIASHI! HINATA'S RUNNING AWAY!"

"Wait! Hinata we can't run this way." I pulled at her hand to stop her.

"What!? We have to keep running or else they'll catch up to us!"

"They'll eventually catch up to us no matter what because they have cars. Come on, I have an idea," I pulled her back to the compound but we went around the entrance towards the backyard. There was a small door towards the back that led to the roof. I took her inside and went up the stairs until we reached the rooftop. There we went to the farther corner where we could hide and see inside the compound at the same time.

"Why are we here, Sasuke?"

"Hanako saw us running towards the gates so everyone will think that we ran outside. One by one, they're going to leave to look for us."

"And we'll wait until they're all gone so we can sneak out unnoticed. Nice plan! Did you come up with that one when you were fantasizing about running away with your ex?" Hinata winked. This girl infuriates me so much right now. I poked her forehead. "Ouch!" she rubbed the spot where I poked.

"You're really an idiot! This was your brilliant idea? To run away?" I whispered but my temper wasn't helping keep my voice down.

"Hey! You went along with it! I didn't ask you to come!" she whispered back.

"Well how could I stay behind? You see how panicked they are! They would've taken this out on me!" just then, Hinata's father walked out of the compound.

"I can't believe this! Hinata would never do this!"

"Hiashi, it's all that boy, Sasuke's fault. It must've been his crazy idea," said Hinata's uncle. Great! They already started blaming me. Don't they know how crazy Hinata is?

"Take out the car Hizashi. I'm going to hunt down that filthy boy myself."

"See what I mean!" I whispered to Hinata.

"Ok, ok I get it. Sorry," she mumbled. It was quiet between us for a few minutes while all the men were leaving the compound in their cars one by one.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked as I couldn't help my curiosity. What was causing her to be so rash all of a sudden?

"You know why," she responded but I shook my head because I knew she was hiding something.

"You could've refused that arranged marriage."

"But if I did then my dad would want to know why, and I can't tell him about Toneri."

"Why?"

"I already told you. He's not like the guys my dad would want me to be with. He's not stable in his job yet and he's…" she paused. She closed her eyes taking in a deep breathe before letting out. "The truth is, he's already married." My eyes widened at the revelation. "No, it's not like he's cheating on his wife! He just… he got married to her when he was young because his family forced him to… but he doesn't love her. Neither does she… They were going to get a divorce but their families kept getting in the way. His father didn't want him to get a divorce, but before Toneri left Konoha he told me that he will definitely get a divorce and let me know because then we can get married."

I took in what she said and tried to understand her situation. It makes sense why she didn't want her father to find out about this guy. Getting yourself involved with a married man like that was dangerous, and no father would want that for his daughter.

"So have you spoken to him? Is that why you're running away because he's divorced and now you can marry him?" she shook her head, "Does he even know you're running away?" she shook her head again. "Do you even know if he's divorced?" she just kept shaking her head. I was in shock at her response. "He doesn't even know it and you're willing to throw away everything for him… You don't even know if it'll work out."

"It'll work out."

"How can you be so sure? You don't even know if he's going through with the divorce! And what about your father and your family? Will they accept you if you got married to him?"

"Once I get married, all I have to do is drop to their feet and ask for forgiveness. They'll get mad and yell, but eventually they'll come around once they see how great he is."

I was starting to panic hearing her say all this. She was going to put everything on the line for a promise someone else made. The worst part was that she didn't even know if he was divorced. What if he wasn't, and then what would she do? She can't possibly think she can be with him like that. Would her family take her back once they found out she ran away for a married man.

"Sasuke, don't worry so much. Everything will be alright," she smiled and tried to smooth my frown lines with her fingers. I swatted her hand away and glared at her. She's the one who's throwing away her life and I'm the one getting comforted?

"You are absolutely crazy." She shrugged and smiled.

"People always do crazy things when they're in love."

Somehow that comment made me think of my mom and Sakura. They both let go of everything they had for love too. Would Hinata turn out like Sakura and marry the guy she loves, or would she be like my mother who never found her love and is now without a family.

I stayed silent for the rest of the night as we snuck out of the compound when everyone was gone back to their rooms. We made our way to the bus stop and there I was faced with a dilemma.

I could go back to Konoha now. I didn't have any obligation to help Hinata. She can travel on her own to the Land of Tea. There was no need for me. I could go back to whatever that was waiting for me in Konoha, which was nothing.

There was nothing for me in Konoha. Apart from a spacious apartment, I had nothing. No one was waiting for me in Konoha. I didn't even have a job to go back to.

On the other hand, I also didn't want to leave Hinata. Finding out about the reality of her situation with this guy, Toneri, I became even more worried about her. It frustrated me and saddened me at the same time to think how easily she was tossing everything for him. And in return she had no guarantee. She didn't ask for anything/ She hadn't even spoken to the guy and here she was running to him.

"Sasuke," Hinata lightly touched my arm, as we got closer to the bus station. "Are you going to get a ticket for Konoha? I can buy it for you since it's the least I can do for all your help," she smiled and for the first time I was worried that I would never see her smile again.

At that moment I made a decision to go with her to the Land of Tea. I couldn't leave not knowing if she got there safely. Also, the thought of going back to an empty apartment with nothing to do haunted me so what better way to keep myself occupied than this.

"I've never really been to the Land of Tea before," I smirked as Hinata's expression brightened at what I was about to suggest. "Maybe I'll get a ticket to there and accompany you."

"Really?" she asked eagerly.

"Yes, but only because I'm bored," I said nonchalantly.

"Of course. Lets go!" she grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the station to buy our tickets.

For some reason, seeing her cheerful and happy, made me sad. I don't know why but I felt like I was going to lose something important even though it was never mine to begin with.


	4. Goodbye

It was a long trip, almost two days by road, to the Land of Tea, but finally, we made it there in one piece. Throughout the trip we made stops at some interesting places and tried some really weird things. One even involved getting me pushed by Hinata into a river. That one was kind of funny actually, because after that I had hauled her over my shoulder and gone all the way into the river with her. She was soaking wet just as much as me, but it was refreshing to be in the water even though we were in our normal clothes. After that we had changed and just roamed around town until our bus was ready to leave.

All in all, it was a good trip, but now it was close to its end.

We had arrived to the Land of Tea late last night and decided to stay in a hotel because, according to Hinata, Toneri's place was still an hour outside of the Land of Tea itself. In the morning we had gotten breakfast together and went around the city since neither of us had ever been there. Hinata looked around for souvenirs she could take back home with her. It was weird to have her be normal throughout this whole endeavor. Whenever I'm reminded of what exactly Hinata is doing, I feel this despair spread over me, but seeing how happy and carefree she is makes me want to pretend that all this is fine with me too.

For the past few hours, we had been roaming around doing nothing as if trying to drag this journey before it ends. It was now almost close to sunset and I knew that this was it.

After taking a cab out of the city, we were finally outside Toneri's workplace.

"I can't believe we made it," Hinata stared at the building with wide eyes.

It was a small building with a beautiful landscape and a lake behind it. This place was more to the countryside since there were lots of tea farms there. Hinata had said that Toneri wanted to start his own business with tea exports so it made sense that he was in a place like this.

"Are you sure you want to do this? We can still go back and make up some excuse to tell your family," I said to her in hopes that she might change her mind at the last moment. It was her life and so she could decide to live it however she wanted but having seen my mom and Sakura throw away everything in their life for some kind of an idea of love made me apprehensive.

"Yes, I'm sure Sasuke. I don't want to go back," she shook her head.

"But how can you do this? Aren't you scared?"

"I am! But I'm never going to live my life if I always hold back just because I'm scared. The possibility of being with the one I love is far greater for me than any fear or pain I might feel," she smiled.

This girl was absolutely crazy and her naivety only caused me to worry more, but I couldn't stop her because she was so sure of herself and already had her mind set. I just hoped that she would get what she wanted and be happy.

"I'm so excited! It's almost been a year… I wonder how he has been," Hinata kept smiling as we made our way towards the office building.

After a few minutes of silently walking, I decided that I didn't want to continue any further so I stopped. Hinata saw that I wasn't moving so she stopped to stand by me.

"Sasuke, what's wrong?" she asked.

I turned to see her staring at me worriedly so I took one of her hands into my own. This would be it. I was never going to see her after this.

"Goodbye Hinata… Take care of yourself," I said as I gave her hand a squeeze before letting go.

"Don't you want to come inside and meet him?" I just shook my head in response and turned to head the opposite way. Hinata looked heartbroken for a minute but then waved and went into the direction we had been heading earlier.

I had met this girl in the most random ways but I had been with her far longer than I needed to be. Now, when she was finally going to meet the one she loved, I couldn't help but think that my time was up. It was as if I had found a small escape from the abysmal circumstances my life was in at the moment, and now it was about to end and leave me forever.

* * *

Three Months Later

"I'm so glad you came to see me Sasuke," at the moment, I was sitting in a small house just outside of Konoha as the woman seated in front offered me some coffee.

"I got your voicemail, Mom." Yes, the woman sitting in front of me was my mom. She owned this house but lived alone in it.

Itachi and I used to spend only summer with her for some years but never did she have anyone in her life that mattered more to her than us. I wasn't naïve to think that my mom never met anyone after she divorced my dad, but she never had a relationship that lasted longer than a year. Now she was old and alone, living away from her family. I never bothered to visit her after graduating high school, but it seemed that Itachi had stopped visiting her recently.

"Oh, yes. I wanted to talk to you, but it was nice of you to come meet me," she smiled at the fact that this was my first time coming to her place willingly. "How have you been?"

"Fine."

"Sasuke, I know you were fired a couple of months ago… If you need any help financially I can –"

"Mom, I'm fine. Stop worrying," I cut her off. "I've been applying to different jobs."

"Oh, really. That's good. How is that going?"

"Well…" I looked away, as I didn't have anything good to tell her. It was true that I had been applying to jobs for the past three months but for most of them I would barely get past the first interview. Having been fired from the Uchiha Company did not make it any better whenever I applied but recently some rumors about the company had been going around making it even harder for me to find a job.

"I'm sure you'll be fine. Just keep trying," she smiled.

"Yeah," I sighed as I leaned back into the sofa and stared at the ceiling. I started wondering about Hinata. What was she doing right now? Did she ever go back to her family? Did they accept her back? Was her life just as much a mess as mine was?

"What are you thinking, Sasuke?"

"Mom, why did you ever leave dad?" I asked. She was quiet for some time so I turned my head to see her expression change from surprise to sorrow at my question.

"It just…didn't work out between me and your father."

"Did you love him?"

"Yes," she replied immediately.

"Then why did you leave him?"

"It's more complicated than that, Sasuke."

"Then tell me. You've never told me why you left and all my life I thought you were a bad mother because you left us for someone else. But now I want to know why you left," I said as she just stared at me.

After being with Hinata and seeing how far she was willing to go for the one she loved, I wanted to know what made my mom go as far as to leave her family. I wanted to know so maybe I could understand her better and maybe try to forgive her. I didn't want to hold back in my life just like Hinata, so I had to get rid of all the pain and fear I was holding onto from my past.

"Why are you asking this all of a sudden?"

"I think I'm old enough to get an explanation."

"I…" she was at a loss for words and I could tell she was trying to come up with something to tell me.

"Was it because of what the rumors are saying now?" Her eyes widened at my question and I knew that what I had said was true.

For the past couple of months rumors had been going around that the Uchiha Company was under investigation for embezzlement and funding illegal activities around the city. Having worked there for only a couple of years, I didn't come across anything like that in the company. But for someone who had been there for far more years, like Itachi or my mom, it would have been apparent after some time.

"Sasuke…"

"Mom, if that was the reason, then I understand. If I were you I would've been scared to be a part of something like that too," I said as I tried to reassure her. Tears began falling from her eyes and she hugged me.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry for leaving you like that. I just… I wanted to take both you and Itachi with me but… I didn't have any money and I couldn't take care of you," she kept crying.

"It's okay mom." I said as I passed her the tissue box on the coffee table when she let go of me.

"I knew too much and that was dangerous for the company so to keep me from telling anyone, they gave me a deal where I could leave the company only if I divorced your father and gave up custody for my children," she sniffed as more tears fell on her cheeks. "I didn't want to leave you but they forced me out.

"Your father promised that he would never let the two of you get involved in this but soon Itachi found out about it when he started working in the company. Madara, the president, was so impressed by Itachi that he wanted to involve him in his plans as well."

"What plans?" I asked intrigued by what my mom told me. All that I knew was what the investigations had said so far but I had a feeling that Itachi was involved in it as well.

"Madara was involved with the terrorist organization, Akatsuki. He had been funding them for years to gain access to their illegal trading to expand his business. Itachi found out about this and tried to stop it."

"What do you mean?"

"Sasuke… the reason why I wanted to talk to you in the first place was that I wanted to tell you what Itachi did… He made a deal with the police and secretly kept giving them information on all of the company's illegal activities. It took them a couple of years but they finally had enough proof to start as investigation and arrest people.

"The reason why he fired you and took away all the assets and earnings you had made from the Uchiha Company was so that you didn't get involved when the investigation began."

I was so stunned by what my mom said that the only thing I could do was blink. Why would Itachi do this? He would put himself under investigation and risk going to jail just like the other people in the company. But why would he spare me?

"Sasuke," she said as if she read my mind, "He did this so that you wouldn't be corrupted by Madara, so that you could take over and build the company from the ground when all of those who were involved were gone."

"Itachi wanted that?" did he really want that for me?

"Yes. He told me about his plans and wanted me to help you when the right time came. He didn't want you to find out about this until the investigations had started because he didn't want you to be a part of it and risk going to jail."

"I can't believe Itachi did all of that."

* * *

For the next couple of months after I found out the truth about the Uchiha Company, one by one most of its board members, president, and CEO were taken into custody. Somehow almost everyone was involved with the Akatsuki. Even though I had no part in the company, I was still taken in for questioning by the police, but since no evidence was found to link me to any involvement with the Akatsuki, I was not charged.

It took almost a month for me to completely take over the Uchiha Company after every one of its board members that was involved with the criminal activities was arrested. Before leaving, Itachi had convinced the remaining members to vote for me as the next CEO of the Uchiha Company, and soon I was back in the company. This time I was not going to let fear or any doubts hold me back in my efforts to succeed in this company.

Itachi had gotten a sentence for a few years in jail as well since he had partaken in the company's illegal activities but since he had cooperated with the police, his sentence was reduced. Soon Itachi would get out and be able to join me in this company as well.

* * *

Nine months after taking over the company one of the news channel had done a report on the investigations and aired it on the television. It wasn't ideal to have my face come up on the TV every time they spoke about the company but it was a good way to show that the Uchiha Company was moving forward from this and I was the one who would be taking over from now on.

Recently things had settled down in the company and employees were becoming more and more confident in keeping their jobs at the company. It took a while but the company was getting back to a strong foothold since many of its shareholders had pulled out after the investigations.

"Mr. Uchiha," I looked up from my desk in the CEO's office to find my secretary standing in the doorway.

"What is it, Karin?"

"You have some visitors," I raised an eyebrow since I didn't remember having anyone scheduled to see me at that moment. "I keep telling them that they would have to make an appointment but they keep yelling and asking to see you," she said nervously as she pushed up her red glasses.

That was odd. No one ever came to meet me without making an appointment.

"Let them know that I can't –" I was cut off by a loud noise and some commotion in the main lobby. I got out to see who was causing it, only to find four pairs of pale grey eyes staring at me.

What was Hinata's family doing at my company?

"You!" said one pale-eyed man as he pushed off one of the guards holding him back. I had never seen him before but the rest of them I had met in Suna when I took Hinata there. Suddenly he came up to me and grabbed my collars as he kept yelling, "You bastard! Where is she!?"

More guards came as they tried to pull him off of me while I pushed him away. I did not want to have a fist fight in the middle of the lobby, but seeing the worry and anger on Hinata's family made me want to hear them out.

"Wait! Stop! Leave them!" I told the guards as they pulled the man away.

"Where is she, you bastard!?" he yelled again but did not attack me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked confused by his anger.

"Where is Hinata?" asked Hiashi as he came up behind Neji while glaring at me.

I was surprised and slightly alarmed by his question about Hinata, but I kept my expression blank. People were starting to gather around us and I did not want to make a scene, so I took them to my office where we could speak privately.

I brought them into my office and told Karin to cancel all the next appointments before closing the door. By the glares I was receiving from each of them, I knew something was terribly wrong.

It was Hinata's father and her uncle, Hizashi, along with Hanabi, and the person I found out to be Neji, that were looking at me with such hostility.

"What can I help you with?" I asked in a professional manner. Even though I had met these people last year, we were still in my office and I wanted to keep things professional, seeing as how all of them were so riled up.

"Where's Hinata, you bastard?!" yelled the same man who had attacked me earlier.

"Neji, calm down! Remember, you are a Hyuga. If he values his life he will tell us without any trouble," Hinata's uncle looked at me threateningly, "Tell us where Hinata is?"

"I don't know where she is," I answered truthfully. It had been a year since I last saw here.

"He's lying! Bring her here, right now!" Neji yelled.

"She's not in Konoha. I haven't seen her for a year."

"Don't lie!" yelled Hinata's uncle. "Both of you lied to us saying that you met in the train, and that nothing was going on between you two. Gaara told us what he saw! And Hanako saw both you running off holding hands! Don't lie to us, boy!"

"That's a misunderstanding, we weren't… Hinata should've gone back home and explained everything by now. She said that she would go back." I was confused by what they were telling me. I could understand this reaction when they found out that Hinata ran away with me, but by now the misunderstanding should have been cleared. Hinata was supposed to go back to her home and that would have cleared it up.

"Hinata hasn't been home for a year," said Hanabi as she tried to hold back on the tears that were welling up in her eyes.

"What?" I said, shocked by her reply.

"We haven't seen her since she ran away with you," said Hiashi solemnly.

"We didn't know where to look for her," said Hizashi, "and it wasn't until we saw your face on the television that we hoped that we could find her."

Hinata hasn't been home since I left her at the Land of Tea. She's been missing for a year? I was beginning to panic at all the possibilities of what could've happened to her, but I did not let that show to her family. They must have been worried about her this entire time.

"Hinata isn't here in Konoha," I said, and I could see Neji about to start arguing at that, but before he could say anything I kept going, "But I promise you that I'll bring her to her family."

They were silent for a few minutes and I could see that they were hesitant to trust me.

"Please bring Hinata back to us," said Hiashi, and it was the first time I had seen the proud man show some emotion.

Hanabi began wiping her tears as she repeated her father's request, while Neji and Hizashi still looked hesitant.

"Give me a week and I promise I'll bring her back to Suna," I said more firmly this time to assure all of them, but on the inside I was worried about Hinata.

"We're holding you to that, or else next time we will come for you and your company," said Hiashi as his brother and Hanabi nodded. Neji still looked at me skeptically, but didn't say anything.

Finally, after reassuring them, they left my office with a look of dejection on their faces. They probably had hoped to see Hinata here.

After they left, I tried to figure out what exactly was going on with Hinata. I thought back to the last time I had seen her in the Land of Tea, and couldn't think of anything that had gone wrong. Maybe she is still there.

She had never told her family about Toneri so it made sense that they never tried looking for her in the Land of Tea, where he was. It would make sense for her to be there if she was with Toneri. She probably got scared to go back home after eloping with a man her family knew nothing about. Maybe that was why she never went back home.

"Karin," I called my secretary and a few seconds later she was in my office. "Book me a flight to the Land of Tea for tomorrow… And cancel all my meetings and appointments for the next week. Send them all an email to apologize and tell them that I'll be out of town for personal matters."

"Yes, Mr. Uchiha." She hesitated by the door a little before asking, "Is everything ok, Mr. Uchiha?"

"No," I leaned back in my chair and sighed thinking about all the trouble Hinata was making me go through again. "I swear, this idiot always puts me in the worst situations."

"W-what?"

"Nothing," I waved my hand at her and rotated my chair to stare out the window behind me, "I just have find this idiot. I bet she's somewhere having the time of her life while people are worried after her," I said to myself not paying attention to Karin as her eyes widened.

"Is it y-your g-girlfriend?" she asked nervously.

"What?" I turned back to find Karin still in my office. "Go do what I told you to do."

"Yes, Mr. Uchiha!" I rolled my eyes as she scampered off. It was annoying how women always acted the same way around me once they found out who I was. But that was why it was nice to find someone like Hinata who didn't pay attention to titles and looks like any other person.

For the past year I had been thinking about Hinata often, and how she was naïve but honest. I had wondered if she was always like that and whether she was happy or not. Now, knowing that her family hadn't seen her in almost a year, all I could do was hope that she was ok.

Hinata, what are you doing right now.


	5. Missing

Thank you everyone for taking the time to write your comments and reviews. I always read them to get some feedback and they encourage mo to write more. I also want to thank Mibbs0007 because your questions in the comment really helped me figure out what I could add to the story, so thank you. As for the depth of the story, I will try to add more of it from now on so the story has a tangible plot to it that you'll enjoy.

* * *

Right after meeting with Hinata's family I went home and started packing my luggage for my flight to the Land of Tea. I wanted to go there right away because I couldn't wait any longer. I had to find out about what happened to Hinata. I was worried about her.

During the past year I always imagined her happy because it was hard to imagine her any other way. Now, I only hope that I was right and that she was happy with the person she wanted to be with.

Even with that, I couldn't help but feel irritated at her for yet again causing me all this trouble. How could she be such an idiot and not realize how much her family would be worried if she didn't contact them. How much I would be worried about her absence. I couldn't believe it, but I truly was worried about her wellbeing. I didn't know when it started but now I knew that I cared enough for her to go after her.

It was weird to find out that I cared for a girl. I never really trusted any woman after the experience I had with my mother and Sakura. But somehow, Hinata had allowed herself to find a place in my mind where I didn't loathe or avoid her. It might have been her cheerful and innocent nature, or the fact that she didn't care about superficial things, but I knew that she was different than any other woman I had ever met and that made her special. She might not know it, but she helped me avoid all the stress and depression I was sure to face after all that happened to me and the Uchiha Company.

"Sasuke," called my mom as she walked into my apartment while I was packing. I had given her a spare key to my place so she could visit me. After talking to her and finding out the truth, her and me became closer than we were before. I was scared to face her when I first came back to Konoha. I don't know why, but I was afraid that she would be disappointed in me too once she found that I was fired from the Uchiha Company. That was why I visited her once I had applied and interviewed for at least some job positions.

Finding me in my room, my mom looked at me questioningly but I didn't say anything. I just kept packing.

"Sasuke, are you going somewhere?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said as I placed the last of my clothes into a suitcase. "I'll be out of town for a week."

"That's around the same time that Itachi gets out." I froze after hearing her. I completely forgot that Itachi was supposed to be let out next week. He had gone to jail for his involvement with the company's illegal activities, but since he complied and provided evidence to the police, he was given a deal for only a few months in jail. He was due to be out and I won't be here for that.

I sighed as I slouched into the couch. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to be here when my brother got out, but I had to find Hinata as well. I had only been able to talk to Itachi during visiting hours while he was in prison. I knew he didn't like the idea of me being anywhere near a prison, but I went anyway. Now, when the day I had been anticipating was finally arriving, I had to leave.

"Sasuke, what's going on? Why do you have to leave all of a sudden?" she asked worriedly.

"I have to find someone…a friend."

"Why do you have to find your friend? Did something happen to them?"

"I hope not…"

"Maybe you can go look for them after Itachi gets out."

"I wish I could, but I completely forgot about Itachi's release," I said slightly embarrassed. "I'm just worried that something might have happened to her."

"Her?" my mom asked, surprised by the pronoun I used.

"Uh, yeah," I replied with a slight blush as I avoided my mom's gaze. Why do I feel like some kind of a schoolboy who just revealed his crush. This is Hinata we're talking about. I'm just worried about her and that's all.

"Is she important, this…friend of yours?" I could distinguish the slight tone of amusement in her voice but I decided to ignore it.

"It's just that her family feels that I'm responsible for her disappearance so I have to find her."

"Why do they think that?"

"That idiot woman thought it was a good idea to run away with me in front of her family members," I grumbled.

"You ran away with her?" she asked shocked, "Did you two elope or something?"

"What? No, it's not like that mom. We didn't run away to be together. We just ran away together… Whatever. It doesn't matter because she is with another man right now…but her family hasn't seen her in almost a year, and they're worried."

"I would be too if it was my child."

"Yeah."

"You should probably see Itachi before you leave, and let him know that you won't be there for his release," I nodded at her suggestion, "Also, he might be able to help you figure out how to find your friend…I'm sure she's a very important person or else you wouldn't be so worried about her," she smiled at me while patting my hair back before she left to make dinner.

The next day, I went to visit Itachi before my flight.

"Sasuke, how have you been?" asked Itachi as he sat on the other side of the plexiglass while talking into the receiver.

"I've been good," I said then cutting straight through the small talk, I continued, "Itachi, I can't make it for your release," I spoke into the receiver on my side.

"Why not?" he frowned. I felt grief wash over me as I realized that my brother wanted me to be there.

"I…I can't. I have to look for someone. She's been missing for a year and I'm worried that something might've happened to her."

"It's a girl?" he asked surprised. Why does everyone hold on to that piece of information?

"Yes, but did you hear what I said? She's been missing for year, and I have look for her…in a week."

"Oh… that'll be hard if you don't have any leads. She could've been anywhere in the past year."

"Yeah, I know. I have a place I can start from and I think she'll most likely be there."

"Has her family reported her missing? Maybe the police can investigate into this."

"I think they had hired a private investigator, but that guy didn't get far. Only that she used her phone once almost a year ago... she must've been in the Land of Tea when she did that, and that's where I'm headed first."

"Hmm," Itachi became pensive as he heard me speak, "Maybe she doesn't want to be found," he stated.

"That can't be. She's not the type to want to avoid people, especially her family."

"So you're going to go after her?"

"Yes... Itachi, I'm sorry –"

"I understand, Sasuke," Itachi smiled. "But I'll have to meet this girl once you find her. This is the first time I've seen you so worked up over a girl," he chuckled while I glared at him.

"I'm not worked up. I'm just worried. You don't understand…" Itachi just kept smiling so there was no use explaining to him.

"Take care of yourself, Sasuke. It's okay that you can't make it when I get out. It was more than enough for me to have you visit me here."

Itachi wasn't one for emotional displays and grand words, but when he spoke he would say just enough.

"Thank you, Itachi. I promise I'll be back soon."

"Also, Sasuke, if you need any help I'll always be here for you," he said before we ended our visit.

After meeting with Itachi, I took my flight to the Land of Tea. There I got myself a rental car and drove it all the way to where I had left Hinata. That was where Toneri worked, so my plan was to meet him and ask him about Hinata.

I drove to the building where Hinata said Toneri's office was. I got there faster than the last time I was here. It was probably because I was driving way too fast anticipating whether I would find Hinata or not.

Honestly, I had thought that I was never going to see her again. That was supposed to be the last time, but now I did not want to acknowledge that I was a little glad to be able to see her again.

I only knew this girl for a few days but in those days I felt like I was free. I did not have to worry about people's false expectation or deceit because Hinata was too honest to do something like that to anyone. That was one of the reasons why I thought about her often and wished that she was with me to make me forget about all the things people had been saying about the Uchiha Company.

It was a struggle to go against people who kept pushing me down and slandering my efforts whenever I tried to rebuild the company. But every time it felt too much, I always thought about Itachi's faith in me, and Hinata. I thought about how, even in her simplicity, she never let fear hold her back. She always had a carefree smile on her face, but thinking back to it, I wonder about how she was able to not worry about the uncertainty and what others said when she ran away because she knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to get it. That's what I did, and I was able to keep this company running.

I parked in the parking lot and got out of the car to walk towards the building. I had made sure that Toneri's business was still in this building before I went to meet him.

I was dressed in a grey business suit as I walked in towards Toneri's office. Even though my only purpose to come here was to find Hinata, I wanted it to seem like I was here on business.

"How can I help you, sir?" asked a secretary as she sat at the front desk.

"I'm here to meet Toneri," I replied.

"Oh, ok. Did you have an appointment with him?"

"No."

"I'm sorry, sir, but Mr. Toneri has a very busy schedule today and won't be able to meet anyone without an appointment," the woman smiled politely.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha, from the Uchiha Company. I've come a long way to meet with him. It would be a shame if I had to go back without being able to talk to him."

"O-oh, Mr. Uchiha!" she finally recognized, "I will let Mr. Toneri know of your arrival immediately."

She went on the phone to call her boss while I waited to be let in. It wasn't a surprise how I was able to get through to Toneri just by my name. Even though the Uchiha Company had gone through a scandal recently, it's name still held influence.

"Right this way Mr. Uchiha. Mr. Toneri will see you now." I was led to a small office with a beautiful view of the lake on one side, but on the other side was a desk where sat a man with silver, almost white hair, and eyes as blue as Naruto's.

"Mr. Uchiha, it is a pleasure to meet you," he stood up and extended his hand towards me. "Please, sit down," he said after we shook hands. "How may I help you?"

"Well to be honest I'm here to find a certain someone."

"Oh…is it someone from our company?"

"No. It's someone you know. She came to visit you about a year ago, but now apparently she's been missing since then."

"I'm sorry. I don't believe I know what you're talking about. I thought you wanted to talk to me about my business." This guy seriously did not know who I was talking about and on the inside I was getting worried whether Hinata actually did meet him that day or not.

"I'm talking about Hinata."

"Hinata? Why would Sasuke Uchiha be asking me about Hinata?" he was very confused when he heard her name.

"Where is she? Her family hasn't seen her in a year and I know that she came hear to see you before she disappeared."

"How do you know Hinata?"

"Answer my question first," I was getting frustrated by this guy. "Tell me where Hinata is."

"I… I don't know." Now I was getting angry.

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't seen her in a year."

"What?" this didn't seem right. "Didn't she come here?"

"Well yeah… but then she left and I haven't seen her after that." This didn't make sense. She couldn't have just disappeared after meeting the guy she gave up everything for.

"What happened? You two were supposed to get married." he had an incredulous expression after I said that.

"What nonsense! Did she tell you that?" Toneri shook his head. "She's crazy. I made her one promise and she held onto that like a lifeline. I wasn't serious about that. I couldn't be. Did she honestly think we could get married?"

"What do you mean? Didn't you love her?" I frowned. Was this guy being serious. You don't make promises like that, especially to someone like Hinata who would give up anything for him.

"Yeah, I did, in college. But that was it though. It wasn't supposed to go more than that. I just recently got divorced and I'm not going to tie myself down again, especially to such a foolish girl," he huffed like it was the most ridiculous thing.

"So you just kicked her to the curb after she came all that way to see you?"

"Hey, what did you expect me to do? She kept coming in to my office and to my home, telling me that she loved me, begging me to listen to her. So I just told her that I could never be with a girl like her." My fists clenched as I heard Toneri but I didn't show my distress.

I was furious at this, but scared for Hinata. When I had been going through a terrible time in my life, unknowingly she had been there to get me through it. But when this guy that she put all her faith in rejected her, she was all alone, without her family, without me. I started to panic as I remembered how delirious I was when I first met her. In the train, I was so lost in thought that it almost caused me to throw away my life. I hope she didn't do something like that. But then how come no one has heard from her in the past year?

I got up to leave without saying anything to Toneri, but he still followed me out the door. When I was about to get out, I abruptly turned to punch him in the face. I held back because I was still representing the Uchiha Company but it was satisfying to give him a black eye.

He stumbled back and let out some curses. He tried to punch me back but I easily dodged it and shoved him into the wall.

"You disgust me," I snarled at him before I walked back to my car.

This place was the place I had started at to look for Hinata because it was the only place I knew she had been to. But now, after finding out what Toneri did to her, I didn't know where she could be. Was she still in the Land of Tea? Or had she left this place?

It was hard to imagine Hinata without her smile, but I knew that after going through this, she must have been devastated, and my heart ached at the thought of her being like that.

I had to find her. I had promised her family that I would bring her back in a week, but how do I find her? This place itself was too big for me to look through it in a week but she might not even be here. I needed help but didn't know who to ask. Itachi wasn't going to be out for another three days and my mom didn't have the resources to help me look for her. Maybe Naruto…

I drove to the hotel I had booked in the Land of Tea and went to my room to think of a new plan. I had to figure out how I would search for her and where, but I knew I needed help. I was reluctant to ask Naruto, but he was the best option because he was a police officer after all. He might be able to use the resources he had at the police station to help me find her.

I finally made my decision and called him hoping that it would work out.

"Hello, Sasuke," Naruto answered immediately after the first ring. He probably was surprised to find me calling him after all this time.

"Naruto," he took in a breath when he heard me talk.

"It's really you…how…ah, what…uh, how are –"

"Naruto, I need your help," I cut him off as I tried getting straight to the point because I didn't have time. I know it had been a long time and things weren't the same as they used to be between us but somehow I always knew that Naruto would have my back. It was just in the bitterness of what happened back then that I pushed him away but now I needed his help, and I just hope that he would.

"What is it? Are you okay? Where are you?" Naruto asked immediately as I smirked. He was just the same as ever.

"I'm fine, Naruto. But I need your help finding someone."

"How long have they been missing?" he asked as if he was at the police station.

"A year."

"A year! Why are you telling me this now?!"

"I didn't know she was missing!"

"Okay… Where was the last place you saw her?"

"In the Land of Tea. That's where I am right now."

"I see. What do you want me to do?" I didn't say it, but I was grateful that Naruto was willing to help.

"I want you to find out any information you can about her. Start with Konoha. Find out about her friends, coworkers, anyone who might know where she went."

"Okay. I have to go right now, but I'll call again to get more information…Sasuke, I'm glad you called. I know things haven't been the same but you can always count on me." I could tell that he was smiling even though I couldn't see his face.

"I know Naruto… Thank you." With that I ended the call.

It was already late now and I was too tired. I just had to figure out where to start looking for her tomorrow.

Before going to bed, I emailed Neji to send me a photo of Hinata and the record of the phone call the private investigator found. We had been in contact since they visited me in Konoha. Even though he didn't trust me, he was willing to help me as much as possible to find her. He was worried about her just as much and I could tell that he cared for her a lot.

Now, I just hoped that Naruto would be able to find something about her in the morning that'll help me find her.


	6. Misunderstandings

I know the rating for this story is T but I went kind of overboard with the curse words in this chapter so I apologize in advance. It's just that once I started writing it, I couldn't stop.

One more thing. I plan on updating every week and even though I might go over a day or two, I'll definitely update because I love this story way too much to abandon it.

I hope you guys enjoy. Read and review!

* * *

It was almost 3am and I still couldn't sleep. Honestly, I didn't want to sleep. My body was restless and I couldn't understand why I was so affected by this. Yesterday, I found out what happened to Hinata after we parted ways a year ago. She had been so excited to meet this guy that she didn't give a single thought to all that she was leaving behind. But she did all that only to be rejected by the one person for whom she was willing to give up everything.

I had been lying on the bed for the past couple of hours trying to fall asleep. I just lay there so still that anyone would think I was asleep, but my eyes were wide open. I was staring at the fan that was rotating on the ceiling above the bed. It was kind of hypnotizing watching it for hours in the dark room where the only light came from the moon from the window.

The plan had been that I was going to come to the Land of Tea, find Toneri, then from him find out about Hinata, yell at her for worrying her family and me, then take her back home. Well, that wasn't going to happen. Instead of the relief I had been hoping to find here, I became more worried about Hinata.

When the sun finally rose, I didn't waste any time and went out to look for her in this city. Neji had emailed me her photo as soon as I had asked him. Even though we weren't on friendly terms, I knew one thing for sure which was that when it came to people we cared about we were both similar. He still had to get back to me with Hinata's phone record because the private investigator was having some issues. So instead of waiting around, I went ahead and started asking people around if they had seen Hinata. I carried her photo around showing it to different people at the bus station and train station incase she travelled from there. I took it to different stores and hotels around the area hoping she might have passed by someplace around here.

"Oh, I think I might have seen her," said a boy as I held her photo in front of him.

I was at a hotel that wasn't too far from Toneri's office. The hotel was small, and looked more like a house that was being rent out than a hotel. There was an old couple that ran the place. Their teenage son was the one that was looking at Hinata's photograph as he was trying to remember something. He stared at it for a while as my eyebrows furrowed in frustration. I swear, if this kid was messing with me I was going to beat the shi-

"Yeah, I remember her!" he finally said as he snapped his fingers when he recognized her.

"When did you see her?" I asked as patiently as I could because at this moment, I wanted to do nothing but yell at him to hurry up and tell me.

"Well, I think it was a year ago, maybe…hmm…yeah, it was." He scratched his head.

"Did she stay here?"

"Oh yeah! She rented out a room here for a week. Grandma gave her a room in the back but I don't think she'd remember much 'cause, you know, they're old," he laughed.

"Kid, just tell me what you remember about her." I glared at him.

"Umm, well, she was here for a week. Looked real sad and lost so grandma gave her a room. Every morning she would go somewhere, but whenever she came back she'd be crying. She did that everyday until she said she was going to visit a friend and stay there with her. She paid grandma and left the next day."

"Do you know where she went?"

"No, sorry." The boy shrugged.

I left their place as soon as I got everything from the boy, and went back to the hotel as it was getting late now. I found out that she stayed here for a week, probably trying to talk to Toneri, but other than that, I didn't figure anything out. Where could she have gone? Hopefully Naruto was able to find something.

As soon as I got to my room, Neji sent me an email. I checked it to find that he had finally sent her phone records. Looking at it, I saw that the phone call she made was to Konoha General Hospital. It was a few weeks after she had been in the Land of Tea. Why would she call the hospital?

Just then Naruto called and without any hesitation, I answered the phone.

"Naruto," I said as I answered my phone.

"Hey Sasuke. I have something for you."

"What did you find?" I asked trying to contain any hope because it might not be something good.

"Yeah, it's kind of funny." He chuckled. "I was doing a background check on her just to find out where she worked and stuff, and this other officer came up behind me and started interrogating me. Turns out, he knows her. Kiba Inuzuka went to college with this girl and they stayed in touch even afterwards."

"Does he know where she is?" I asked immediately.

"Yeah, he does. He was reluctant in telling me but I had to plead with him. I told him about her family being worried, and about my lovesick friend who was chasing after her."

"What did he say Naruto?" I growled. I ignored his last comment, which was most definitely about me.

"Okay, I'm getting there. He said that he talked to her a couple of months ago and at the time she was staying with a woman named Kurenai Yuhi. She lives in the Land of Waves. You remember that place right? We went there when we were younger." I could hear the smile in his voice as he remembered something from our childhood.

"Yeah… Thanks Naruto. I really appreciate your help."

"Don't mention it… It's the least I can do… especially after all that I did –"

"That's in the past now." I cut him off. "Let's just move forward…I'm glad that you're happy." It would not have been the same a year ago but right now I truly was happy for my friend.

"Thanks Sasuke… Now you go get your girl!" he hung up right away before I could even reply. I just shook my head thinking about Naruto. He was always going to be the same.

I finally felt some relief after finding out where Hinata was. At least now I could see her.

The next day, I took the first flight to the Land of Waves. When I arrived there, it felt kind of nostalgic, and not because I had been there during my childhood. This was also the place where Hinata and I had spent some time before going to Suna.

When I got to the Land of Waves, I rented myself a car and went to a hotel to book a room so I could drop my bag off. It was still pretty early in the day so I decided to visit the place where Hinata was staying. Naruto had given me Kurenai's address so I drove there hoping that Hinata was there. On my way, I couldn't help but feel the anticipation build up. I was getting nervous for some reason, and it felt weird. I realized that I was nervous to meet Hinata after such a long time. I pushed that thought away and focused on driving.

When I got to the address, I found a small house in a residential street. It seemed quiet inside and for some reason I became nervous again. What if she was in there? What if she wasn't? I didn't know what to expect if I saw her but I stayed inside my car contemplating if I should go up to the house. My car was parked across the street from the house so I could see it from the car's window. After a few minutes when I finally decided to go up to the house, someone came out.

Hinata came out of the house dressed in dark grey pants and a white shirt. She turned around to lock the door before she headed to the sidewalk. She was kind of far away but I still caught a glimpse of her face. She looked different.

When she started walking on the sidewalk, I got out of the car and started following her. I was walking at a distance but not too far that she couldn't see me if she turned around. But she never noticed my presence. She kept walking quietly with her head lowered and eyes on the ground. She did not lift her eyes once to look around her. She just kept walking quietly, without even a smile on her face.

I couldn't even recognize her. She just seemed like an empty shell of her past self, and I couldn't do anything but stare at her, trying to find the Hinata I knew.

She walked up to a school and turned to go inside. Once inside the school, she went into the nurse's office and that was when I realized, she was a nurse. She went into the nurse's office and I wanted to follow her inside but the school bell rang and all the students started shuffling around to get to class. It didn't seem like the best time or place to talk to her. I didn't want to interrupt her at her work, so I decided to wait for her. I went back to my car and drove it around a little until I finally went to the school and parked my car to just wait there. It was almost time for the school to end.

The entire day I had just been thinking about Hinata and what she looked like when I saw her. I missed her old self because she was always happy and smiling, but now she had no emotion. Even her eyes had seemed so dull and devoid. I kept cursing Toneri because this was his fault, but I felt useless for not being able to help Hinata when she needed it. I wanted nothing more than to be with her right now and never let her out of my sight. I wanted her to smile again.

The school bell rang and soon the kids started heading out. Eventually, I came out of the car and leaned against it to wait for Hinata. It wasn't until at least an hour after the last of the students had left when Hinata finally came out. She held her bag on her shoulder and walked down the stairs to walk on the sidewalk like she did this morning. But this time I decided to stand in front of her rather than walk behind her.

She walked a few steps towards me with her gaze lowered but as she got closer, she finally lifted her eyes and saw me.

"Sasuke?" she asked, a little surprised but nothing more.

I finally got to see her up close and I noticed things I hadn't been able to earlier. She was paler than usual. Her eyes were red rimmed and she had dark circles underneath them.

"What are you doing here, Sasuke?" she asked again after I didn't say anything.

"I've been looking for you." I responded as I shoved my hands into my pockets.

"Why?" she asked, confused, and for the first time today I saw her show any kind of emotion on her face.

"I met Toneri two days ago," I said instead of answering her question. Her eyes widened a little but her expression didn't change much. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"W-why would I tell you?" I furrowed my brows at her question.

"I took you all the way to Suna when you missed your train. And then I went with you to the Land of Tea when you ran away from your home. Don't you think I would've been worried about you?"

"It doesn't concern you." She looked away.

"Then what about your family?" She bit her lip at my question. "Isn't it their concern? Shouldn't you at least tell –"

"Stop it!" she yelled. "If you have nothing else to say then please excuse me." She walked around me to get away but I grabbed her arm before she could leave.

"Hinata," I sighed as she tried to pry her arm away. This was not the way I expected this to go. As soon as I saw her, I couldn't help but get angry at her stupidity and the consequences that lead her to be like this. But I had to calm down. It wasn't her fault that things didn't go her way. "I'm sorry." She stopped squirming and slowly looked at me over her shoulder. She wasn't crying, but I could see her quivering lip as if she was trying to hold back, and I wanted to punch myself. How could I make her feel worse? I let go of her arm and she straightened before turning towards me with the same blank expression she had earlier.

"You must be tired. Why don't you come over f-for some tea?" she said with a strained smile.

I nodded and then suggested that we go in my car. I drove her and pretended to listen to the directions she gave me for her house as if this was my first time going to it.

When we got to her place, she showed me to her living room where I sat while she went into the kitchen to make some tea. After a few minutes, she came back and handed me a cup while she took hers and sat across from me on another couch.

"Listen, Hinata," it felt nice saying her name again like that, "You're family is really worried about you." She kept looking at her cup quietly, so I continued. "They found me and came all the way to Konoha to ask about you. You were missing for an entire year so I promised them that I'd find you and bring you back."

"You shouldn't have promised something like that." She said without lifting her head.

"Why?"

"Because I d-don't want to go back." She sniffled and I felt the same feeling that I had earlier when I made her sad, but I didn't stop.

"Hinata, they're your family. You can't ignore them forever."

"B-but I can't f-face them. Especially after I r-ran away like that." She started crying.

I got up from my seat and sat beside her. I took the teacup from her hands to put it away so I could grab her hands in my own.

"Hinata, they're worried about you. They don't care that you ran away. All they want is to see you and to know that you're okay." I rubbed my thumbs on the back of her hands as I held them. "Also, if I don't bring you back in a week, then Neji will kill me," I said seriously but it finally got her to look at me. "It's true, I can tell you word for word what he wrote to me in an email. Something about castrating me, hanging me, taking me to court and registering me as a sex offender. There was more too."

"Neji wouldn't do that," she said but her tears had stopped and there was a small smile on her face.

"Oh, then you don't know him," I smirked.

"Hinata, who's this?" a woman in her early thirties came in to the living room with a child on her hip. She had brown hair which was lighter than Hinata's but her eyes were red. "I didn't know you were going to have a guest over," she smiled as she looked at our hands.

"Oh!" she jumped off the couch as she let go of my hands, "This is my friend, Sasuke. Sasuke, this is Kurenai. I live with her for now." She slightly blushed as she spoke and I couldn't help but feel pleased by her reaction. Kurenai on the other hand just stared at Hinata's face in shock.

"Hinata, you're blushing." She pointed out.

"No, I'm not," she blushed even more. The baby in Kurenai's arms started laughing and Hinata had to cover her cheeks with her hands.

"I'll be upstairs," Kurenai smiled. "Don't make too much noise you two, okay?" she winked at Hinata and headed up the stairs. Hinata just made a noise before blushing even more as Kurenai left.

It was quiet for a while and none of us moved so I decided to say something.

"Hinata, you have to go home." She turned to look at me before picking up the tea and taking it to the kitchen. I followed her silently but after disposing the tea in the sink she looked at me with her back to the counter.

"I'll think about it," she finally said.

"I'll be back in two days and you can tell me then." I said as she walked me out the door. She nodded and then said goodbye before shutting the door.

Two days later, I came back to her house as I had said I would. I was about to knock on the door when it opened up.

"Hi Sasuke. Hinata's all ready. She'll be down in a minute," said Kurenai as she went up the stairs. I didn't know what to do so I just waited by the door until Hinata came down. She was wearing a backpack and holding a duffle bag in her hand.

"I'm ready to go," she said before turning to Kurenai to give her a hug. "Thank you, Kurenai, for everything. I'll let you know when I get home," she smiled at her and then kissed the baby that Kurenai was holding. "Bye," she said as she took her stuff and started heading towards my car, but before I could follow her, Kurenai spoke.

"Please take care of Hinata," she said to me. I just nodded in response and went to my car.

Hinata was waiting by the car to put her stuff away so I unlocked the car. After we placed everything away we got in the car and I froze. What was I supposed to do now?

"Aren't we going home?" Hinata asked as she saw that I wasn't starting the car.

"I haven bought the tickets yet." I was only supposed to find out if she wanted to go home today, not actually take her home.

"Oh… I thought we were going to… Well, I already said goodbye to Kurenai." I sighed and started the car. I guess we'll have to go to my hotel and then I'll buy the tickets for tomorrow.

When we got to the room, it was already dark outside so I ordered dinner so we could eat in the room. While we ate the food I looked for flights to Suna. The room that I had booked was one with a separate bedroom so I was sitting in the main room where the TV was while Hinata ate in the bedroom.

After booking the flight, I went in to the bedroom as well to see what she was doing. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, hugging her legs, while her back was to me. I smirked as I remembered something.

"I know Tae Kwondo."

"What?" she turned around looking at me with a puzzled look.

"Yeah, so don't even try anything on me." She smiled as she remembered the first night after she missed her train.

"I wasn't going to," she replied, as her smile grew wider.

I just smirked and sat on the sofa across from the bed.

"Do you know what kind of place that was?"

"Oh god, that place was really weird," she laughed.

"But do you know what that guy at the reception thought you were?"

"What?"

"He thought you were a call girl. That by the hour charge was for, you know, that kind of stuff." I smirked.

"What?" she looked at me in disbelief before bursting into laughter. "I can't believe it!" she was laughing so hard that she had tears in her eyes and I couldn't resist laughing either. "No wonder," she said when her laughter slowly dissipated. "No wonder I always get into such stupid situations. I went after him like an idiot. I'm so stupid." She covered her face with her hands and began crying.

I went to sit beside her and hesitated for a minute. Not knowing what to do, I just placed my hand on her shoulder but she didn't even notice.

"Hinata, you don't need to cry over some jerk like that." But she kept crying. "Hinata, look at me." I took one of her hands away from her tear stricken face. "You need to get over this guy. He's just hurting you." She sniffled but she had stopped crying now. "Do you have a photo of him?" I asked remembering what Hinata had done when the roles were switched.

"No," she rasped.

"Damn," what do I do now? "Wait here."

I went out of the bedroom to get my wallet. Inside I found what I was looking for and went back to Hinata.

"Come with me." I grabbed her wrist and gently pulled her behind me to the main room until we got to the landline phone for the room. "Here," I picked up the receiver and handed it to her.

"What do you want me to do?" she sniffled.

"You're going to call him."

"What!? B-but I don't have his n-number," she panicked at the thought of talking to Toneri.

"I do," I took out the business card I had found in my wallet. It was Toneri's so it had his office and cell number.

"B-but what if he doesn't p-pick up? This is his w-work number." She tried in an attempt to get out of this, but I wasn't going to give up so easily.

"You're still going to try. Call him."

"No! I d-don't want to t-talk to him!" She tried running away but I grabbed her wrist with my hand while I dialed Toneri's number with my other hand. As soon as I was done, I handed the phone to Hinata who could hear the dial tone as it rang.

She stared at the phone with wide eyes until she heard a voice.

"Hello," answered a voice from the receiver which I was sure was Toneri's.

Hinata just kept staring so I placed the phone to her ear so she would hold it.

"Hello, who is this?" he asked again and Hinata turned to me for some help.

"Say something," I whispered.

"Umm…"

"Hinata, is that you?" he asked immediately as he recognized her voice. "I thought we were done with this. We already talked about it. After all this time you're still not over this. Now, you're calling me. I already told you Hinata –"

"I-I know that," she replied hesitantly.

"Then why did you call?" he snapped.

"U-umm… I c-called b-because," she looked at me with wide eyes.

"Say 'I called because I wanted to tell you something.'" I whispered to her to say to Toneri.

"I-I called b-because I w-wanted to t-tell you something."

"What is it Hinata? I don't have all day."

"I wanted t-to tell you t-that…"

"You are," I whispered.

"Y-you are," she copied.

"A…"

"A…"

"Fucking asshole," I whispered.

"A fuc-what! I can't say that!" She shrieked into the phone.

"Hinata! Fuck, why do you have to yell so loud!" Toneri shouted.

"Tell him he's a jerk, Hinata. Get it all off your chest," I urged her. She hesitated at first but finally said something.

"Y-you're mean," she said quietly into the phone.

"What?" Toneri replied.

Hinata took in a deep breath and spoke again.

"I-I said you're mean."

"Keep going," I whispered.

"A-and you're a jerk."

"Hinata, what are you saying?" said Toneri.

"Toneri, you are a-a jerk! And you're, you're such an asshole!"

"More, more bad words," I said as I punched my fist into my palm.

"You are such an asshole. I came to see you all the way from Suna and y-you just kicked me out like that. You are a fucking asshole!"

"Hinata," Toneri said, bewildered by her emotions.

"Enjoy your single life you p-piece of shit, because you're never going to find someone who will put up with all y-your bullshit like I did. And you know," Hinata kept going like broken dam, " I r-remember what you said and honestly, I've b-been trying to understand things from your perspective, but I just can't get my head that f-far up my ass like yours! F-fuck you!" with that she slammed the phone and hung up.

She was panting after that and I couldn't help but feel the satisfaction at imagining Toneri's face on the other end of the line when she said all that.

"That was fucking amazing. Better?" I said as I gave her a pat on the shoulder a little roughly, but she didn't mind. Instead she looked at me with the biggest smile I had seen in a long time. She was blushing too, and I couldn't stop staring at her. She jumped towards me and wrapped her arms around my neck to give me a hug.

"Thank you," she whispered against my neck and a chill went down my spine as I felt her breath there.

I raised my arms and awkwardly patted her on her back. She was a woman and we were alone in this hotel room so the implications were there, but this was Hinata. She would never have ulterior motives like that. This was just a hug, so I treated it as such and hugged her back even though it felt really nice. I wrapped my arms around her and lowered my face to take in her scent. I held her until she pulled away slowly, but not all the way.

We were still in each other's arms when she stared at me with a blush. Up close I could see how her eyes weren't just grey, but had a lavender tint to it. Without realizing it, I slowly leaned forward as Hinata slightly parted her lips. I didn't know when but I had started staring at her lips as her eyes were closed now. When I was only a hairsbreadth away, my phone rang.

As soon as the phone rang, both of our eyes snapped open wide, in the next second we pushed each other off and were looking away with what I knew was a very bright blush on both our faces. Damn, when did it get so hot in here?

"Excuse me," I said as I went to check my phone. I didn't know what happened or what was about to happen or whether I was glad or angry to be interrupted. I didn't want to think about it.

I picked up the phone to see an unknown number calling me, but I answered it anyway.

"Did you find Hinata?" asked a man on the other end. I rolled my eyes, as I knew who this was.

"Yes, Neji I found her. We'll be heading to Suna tomorrow."

"Good," he said curtly but I could hear the change in his voice. He was relieved and glad that I found her. "She better gets here safely within this week, or else…imagine if word got out that the Uchiha CEO was a dickless sex offender and a closet pervert."

"The hell Neji! She'll be there. Stop it with the weird threats." I hung up the phone and as soon as I did that a thought crept into my mind. What if he saw us? My eyes widened. Is he watching us right now? I did a once over around the room and the windows to get rid of this mild paranoia of Neji watching his cousin and me.

Once I was satisfied that Neji wasn't hiding somewhere in the room, I went out to where Hinata was still standing with her blush slowly disappearing, but it came back with full force when she saw me enter the room.

"Uhm," I cleared my throat to get rid of the awkward tension. "You can take the bed and I'll sleep here. Our flight is at 8 in the morning."

She nodded and headed into the bedroom shutting the door behind here. I just sighed and fell back onto the couch. I couldnt help but feel happy that I was able to help her in some way.

The next day we headed to the airport to board our flight to Suna. We hadn't spoken much but it wasn't awkward anymore between us. A few hours later we landed in Suna and got a taxi to drive us to her home. When we got closer to the compound, she turned to me with a look in her eyes that I couldn't decipher.

"Thank you, Sasuke," she said with a smile. "I'm really glad that I got to meet you in the train that day. You've done so much for me," she said while smiling at me, and I couldn't help but stare at her. Right then I decided that she looked better with a smile.

The taxi stopped at our destination and we got out after I paid the driver. Once we were out, we walked to the compound's gate, and before we even rang the bell someone came out.

"It's her! It's Hinata!" a girl yelled as she pulled Hinata inside. It was like déjà vu because once again all these people were surrounding us when we got in.

"Hinata!" yelled Hanabi as she ran to her sister to give her a hug. Hinata couldn't help but cry and laugh at the same time. She was so afraid to go home because of how they might have reacted. She thought that they would disown her and hate her, but all these people were just hugging her and greeting her. Her sister had her in a death grip while most of the family was happy to finally see her after all this time.

"So Mr. and Mrs. Uchiha finally decided to come see us," said Hanako as she winked at me. Wait, Mrs. Uchiha? Hinata looked at me questioningly. This probably confused her as well. "Oh don't be so shy now. You two were hand-in-hand running like lovers and now you pretend it never happened," Hanako giggled.

"Hanako, what are yo—" Hinata asked before she got cut off.

"Both of you ran away and that was wrong," said Hiashi. "All you had to do was talk to me," he sighed, "but I know I can be a little… overbearing. Now, what's done is done. I'm just glad you're okay, and the Uchiha seems to be taking care of you well, I presume?" he asked Hinata but she stared at him confused by what he was saying. There were probably a lot of things she was confused about just like me but I did not dare say any of them out loud.

"Uchiha?" she said as she turned to look at me. Her eyes widened after a second once she realized the name, but there was still one thing that puzzled us both.

"Yes, Sasuke Uchiha. Has he been taking care of you?" he asked again.

"W-well, yes, he's very nice to me, b-but why are you asking me that?"

"Because I want to know if my son-in-law is taking care of you and treating you well. Just because he's an Uchiha and he's rich doesn't mean that he can take my daughter for granted."

"S-son-in-law!?" Hinata stuttered as I had the same reaction, mentally. I still wasn't in their good graces so I had to tread carefully around them, which meant I had to hide my confusion from them.

"That's why you two ran away, right, to elope?" asked Hanabi.

"Yeah, you guys tried hiding it by saying you 'just met on the train' and 'were only friends' but I knew it all along," Hanako pointed at us accusingly.

"Come on, everyone. They had a long journey and I'm sure they're tired by now. Let's give them some time to rest," said Hizashi as he stood in the crowd.

Neji stood right beside him and I could see how glad he was to see Hinata even though he didn't show it on his face. When he turned to look at me, his eyes changed and I could see all the plans he had made for me if I had failed to bring Hinata home.

The next thing I knew I was being led to the guest room by some guys, half of whom were giving me threatening looks.

"I know both of you are married," said an old man who seemed like he was nice, "and you have probably done it many times, but it's custom here for the bride and groom to stay separately until a proper ceremony is held."

"Yes, in a few days we'll hold a wedding ceremony to officially register your marriage. It's tradition." Neji glared at me.

"…Okay…?" I didn't know what to say. We weren't married but these people thought that since Hinata ran away with me, we probably eloped. I couldn't necessarily deny them because one, they won't believe me, and two, I didn't want Hinata to get in trouble with her family. I was going to let Hinata decide what she wanted to tell her family, until then I'll just play along.

Once everyone finally left me alone, Hinata came in to my room.

"Sasuke, I'm really sorry about this. I didn't think they wou—"

"It's okay. I don't really…mind it, if that's what you want. This way, you don't have to tell your family why you ran away." She bit her lip as she thought about my suggestion while I just stared at her lip imagining what it would feel like if I bit it –wait what? Am I turning into a closet pervert?

"I d-don't want to put you through any more trouble," she finally said with a worried look.

"Don't worry about me." I shook my head. "Just decide what you want. If you want to pretend so your family doesn't find out about Toneri then I'll go along with you." I could understand why she wanted to keep it hidden from her parents because if they found out that she ran away for a married man who rejected her in the end, they might not have had the same reaction.

"Okay," she said as she looked at me with a pensive look, but then smiled in the end. "Thank you, Sasuke. I don't know how I'd ever repay you."

"Just don't do anything stupid again," I said with a smirk as she smiled before she left my room. Even though I said that, my mind had gone back to yesterday when we were in the hotel room standing really close to each other. I shook my head to get rid of that image.

I probably should call Karin to extend my leave. I wouldn't be leaving this place for a few more days.


	7. Doubts

Kind of a shorter chapter than usual.

Thank you again to everyone who commented. You guys are awesome as always.

Let me know what you think.

* * *

"I don't understand…can you say it again."

"I'm getting married. What's there not to understand?"

"Well, for starters, I thought you were only going to find this girl. Now you're going to marry her? Is she pregnant? Did you get her pregnant, and now she's trying to trap you into marriage." Itachi spoke smoothly into the receiver as I heard his voice through my cellphone. I didn't know how he did it, but somehow he always kept a calm voice no matter how ridiculous of a thing he said.

"What? No, she's not pregnant! Why would you assume that?" Was me getting married that hard to believe?

"I've never heard of this girl and now out of nowhere you're planning to marry her. If that was the plan then why did you lie and say you were going to look for her?"

"Itachi, try to understand. I did go to look for her. But now I'm going to marry her. And, before you say anything, it's not what you think." I sat on the bed in the guest room where I was staying.

"What do you mean?" I could hear his frown on the other side.

"Her family thinks that we're married already and now they want to hold an official ceremony themselves. We can't really try to deny anything so we went along with it. I just need you to come on behalf of the Uchiha family to participate in the ceremony. And don't tell mom. She'll get the wrong idea about it."

"Sasuke, what did you get yourself into?"

"Just tell me if you're going to do this or not?"

"Are you sure you're not being played by this woman to get married to an Uchiha? You always used to discard the conversation anytime Sakura brought up marriage and she was your girlfriend. Now this girl comes along and you're ready for marriage like it's no big deal?"

"First of all, I'm not being played. Who do you think I am? Secondly, that is not what happened. We were way too young for that. Thirdly, I've already told you this is just a ceremony. We're not really going to be married."

"But then what about later on when her family starts asking questions. Are you going to pretend to be married for the rest of your life?"

"I'll figure something out. Just tell me if you're coming or not." I was starting to get really frustrated with this.

"Yes, I will probably be there in two days…Sasuke, I hope you know what you're doing." With that he hung up the phone.

I sighed as I lied back on the bed. There were going to be some seriously hectic days coming ahead of us now. I couldn't believe I had actually just agreed to this. What was wrong with me? Itachi was right. What about in the future? We couldn't pretend to be married forever. Would we stage a divorce and separate? And what about the press? They were going to go crazy if they found out that the Uchiha's CEO was married. I can't let that happen.

With all these crazy thoughts going through my head, I decided sleep was the best solution right now and so I just went to sleep, pushing off all my problems to tomorrow.

The next day after we arrived, things had started normally. Hiashi and most of the elders spoke to Hinata and me about the ceremony and what needs to be done for it. The other family members had already told me most of this yesterday during dinner. That's where I found out that I needed to have at least a family member or someone to represent my family and me.

After thoroughly discussing the plans for the ceremony, we had decided to hold it in two days. Just in time for my brother to arrive.

"So you really are an Uchiha," said Hinata once we were out of the meeting with Hiashi and the elders. She was sitting on the swing where I first spoke with Hanabi while I was sitting on the ground leaning my back to the tree with my eyes closed.

"Yes, in the flesh and blood." I opened one eye to observe Hinata's expression, which was mostly neutral. I was impressed that she didn't have the usual reaction most women have when they find a male Uchiha specimen.

"So…" Hinata began swinging lightly on the swing as I opened both my eyes to look at her. "Are you the handsome one or the younger one?" my eye twitched at her question. She had got to be kidding.

"Did you even know our names before you met me?" I snapped.

"Eh, not really." She blushed. "I saw you guys on TV a long time ago but after that I didn't really pay much attention. All I remember is that there was a handsome one and his younger brother." She smiled at me and I could somehow tell she was doing this on purpose. She had to be messing with me.

"His name is Itachi, my older brother," I said nonchalantly as if her words didn't affect me at all. I went back to my original position which was me closing my eyes and enjoying the weather.

"Is he coming to the ceremony?" Hinata asked after a few minutes. My left eye twitched in frustration but I didn't open my eyes.

"Yes," my voice seethed, surprising me a little.

"Oh ok," was all she said and I swear I knew she was blushing at that moment. I opened my eyes and confirmed what I already knew. She was blushing as she stared at nothing in particular.

"Do you want me to set up a date for you when he gets here?" I raised an eyebrow at her reaction.

"W-what? No. I'm supposed to be marrying you remember."

"Hn," I replied.

"Sasuke, are you sure you're okay with this? I feel like I'm imposing on you and it's not even your problem," she said worriedly and I could see the lines forming between her brows as she scrunched them.

"I already told you, so don't worry about it, okay. It's annoying when you keep asking me that." I smirked. Just then Hanabi ran up to us.

"Hinata, dad is looking for you," she said, huffing to catch her breath.

"Okay. Thanks Hanabi." She got up to leave but Hanabi spoke before she could.

"Actually he wants you too, lover boy," she said looking at me. I glared at her for the nickname but got up to leave as well.

Once we got to Hiashi's office, inside I saw someone I was not expecting to see.

"Hinata, Sasuke. This is Toneri. He says he knows Hinata and is here to speak with her. He has told me some very interesting things too." Hiashi turned to look at me with a piercing gaze. I could feel Hinata shaking so I tried to hold her but before I could, Toneri got up and approached us.

"Hinata, can I speak with you?" she turned to look at her father who nodded his permission. Then she looked at me and I couldn't do anything but squeeze her hand in response. I kept glaring at Toneri as he took her outside to the gardens to talk.

"I think we should give them privacy, don't you think Sasuke," Hiashi spoke as he saw that I was about to follow them. "But I guess we're all just curious."

He got up and motioned for me to follow him. I went after him to a door that I did not notice at first in the corner of his office. It was aprivate entrance to the gardens in the compound. There, just around the corner I could see Hinata and Toneri standing. I was about to go up to them because I did not like the idea of that bastard telling some kind of bullshit to her. But before I could go, Hiashi grabbed my shoulder to stop me and slowly pull me back to where we were hidden from them.

"We shouldn't disturb them," he whispered but stayed there trying to listen to what they were saying. Who knew Hiashi Hyuga was so nosy. I leaned in to listen to what they were saying as well.

"Hinata, I'm really sorry for everything. I deserved your hatred and everything. I know I've been an asshole and you could call me whatever you want. But I've come to realize my mistake. I was stupid and too scared to get into another commitment when I finally got out from the marriage. That's why I rejected you. But now I know I can't be without you. After your call, I just couldn't stop thinking about you. I knew it was a mistake rejecting you and now I want to amend it. I love you, Hinata. Let's get married." He stood in front of Hinata with a tender smile as he pleaded his case. But in response all Hinata could do was just stare at him.

"T-toneri, I don't know wha—" she finally spoke after a few minutes only to be cut off by him. He placed his finger on her lips to shush her and at that moment I knew that bastard needed another punch.

"You don't have to give me an answer now. Just think about it first. Please." He moved his hand on her lips to place it on the side of her face. He rubbed his thumb across her cheek and I knew he was leaning in to give her a kiss but before he could get any closer Hinata turned and walked away. "Please, do think about it Hinata. I'll be staying in town for a few more days. Let me know when you're ready," he said to her retreating back.

As soon as she walked away, I went back into Hiashi's office and followed her. I didn't want to deal with Hiashi at the moment and I think he knew that because he didn't try to stop me or ask me for explanations.

"Hinata." I finally caught up to her and grabbed her hand to stop her from running away. We were back in the place where we had been earlier.

She turned around to look at me and I could see tears threatening to fall on her cheeks. I grabbed her face in my hands.

"Hey, what's wrong? Do you want me to go punch him?"

"After a-all this t-time, now he d-decides he's ready." She sobbed and the tears started pouring. I wiped them away with my thumb as I gently held on to her face to look at me.

"He's just a stupid asshole and a bastard. Forget about him. He's hurt you enough. I'm here, okay." I tried consoling, which I was pretty bad at to be honest.

"He asked me to marry him," she said but the way she said it was different. "I had been dreaming of this and now he finally asked me." She sobbed even more.

"Are you actually going to think about it?" At her silence I let my hands slip away. "You can't be serious?" I asked in disbelief. "Hinata!" I grabbed her shoulders and lightly shook her to look at me as she was avoiding my gaze.

"It's just that I still love him!" she cried as she shrugged my hands off of her. "I just can't forget him that easily. And yes, at one point there was nothing more I wanted than to be married to him. Now that he's asking me, I…I don't know what to do!" she grabbed her head as she crouched down on the ground to sit by the tree.

"I want to give him a chance, I really do," Hinata said from her position on the floor. I clenched my fists at her statement but I didn't do anything more. In all honesty, this was not my issue and I shouldn't have been involved in it in the first place. But for some reason, the idea of her being with Toneri angered me. How could she even think about giving him second chance? She shouldn't even be wasting her time thinking about him. But I couldn't do or say anything, because like I said, this was not my issue.

"Hinata…before you make any decisions just think about it…Promise me that you'll think about it carefully before you give him your answer." She looked up at me through her red-rimmed eyes but eventually nodded.

"I think I'm just going to go back to my room," she said as she got up, and with that she left to go back to the compound while I just stayed.

I sat down in the position I had been earlier today and decided to forget about everything around me and just enjoy the day for once. I didn't want to think about how much of an idiot Hinata was being, or how that bastard Toneri didn't deserve her. Instead I just cleared my head of any thought and tried relaxing.

No matter how hard I tried for at least an hour, I still didn't feel any bit relaxed. I don't know why, but I just felt crushed by the fact that Hinata still loved Toneri.


	8. Indecisions

Thank you for those who left a review. You guys are awesome!

This one is kind of a shorter chapter than usual as well but I hope you guys enjoy it.

I have been writing in Sasuke's POV but I thought I should change that now and maybe for the future because honestly it can be hard having to write his thoughts and perspective only. I wanted to be able to show Hinata's side as well, so I decided to make it a third person POV.

Here's the new chapter. Read and review!

* * *

 **Third person POV**

After Toneri's proposal, Hinata had done nothing but stay in her room for the rest of the day as she evaluated her decisions and what she should do in the future.

Since coming back home, Hinata had been thinking a lot about her life and what kind of mess she had gotten herself and Sasuke in. This wasn't Sasuke's burden to bear, yet he had so much for her. Faking this ceremony with him just to hide from her family made her feel like a coward and a horrible person for using Sasuke.

She had been gullible, fooling herself into believing Toneri's words. She was too naïve to realize what would happen because she was too lost into the fantasy she had created of a married life of with Toneri. Sometimes she wondered if she was actually in love with him or just the idea of being married. It was something she had wanted since she was a little girl.

Hinata's mother had once told her that to truly be happy in life she needed to fill her heart with love. She had been too young to understand that at the time, but after her mother passed away, those words were something that stuck with Hinata as her mother's last memories.

For a long time, Hinata thought that the love she needed to fill her heart was the kind of love she was getting from Toneri where everything just seemed perfect. When they were together in college, she felt like this was what her mother had talked about, to have love that made you happy. What she didn't realize until later on was that love wasn't just meant to be for the good times. It was suppose to stick around when you were feeling sad and support you when you were at your low. It wasn't a one-way road, but a bridge between two people.

After Toneri's proposal, Hinata realized that she needed to evaluate her life choices. For too long she had been focused on love and marriage. She wanted nothing more than to be married. But looking back to her relationship with Toneri, she found that their relationship was nothing but a happy one without any problems. That was the thing that made Hinata realize that she could never fill her heart with love if her love was never even there through the problems. Toneri hadn't been there for her when she had come all the way from Suna to meet him. He had just abandoned her to essentially be on her own in a place where she knew no one. She was alone in the Land of Tea constantly trying to plead with Toneri, but he just rejected her. For what, fear of commitment, fear of losing his bachelor life? And now all of a sudden he was ready?

Hinata gave Toneri's proposal the proper amount of thought she knew it deserved because aside from what Toneri had done to her, she wanted to know she was making the right choice for herself so she wouldn't regret it later. No matter how much in love she had been with Toneri, she had to heed her mother's advice. She had to fill her heart with love, not the kind that is wishy-washy, or only there for the good times.

As she spent her day in her room, Hinata also thought about Sasuke. He had done so much for her without ever asking for anything in return. And what had she done? She had just selfishly used him whenever she needed someone. Sasuke had even allowed her to make a show of him as her husband to her family just so she could be saved from their anger, disappointment, and disownment. She had to finally do the right thing by Sasuke.

The Uchihas were always considered to be selfish and cold people, with a few exceptions, and it was funny that to Hinata, Sasuke seemed to be the exception even if he didn't seem like it in the beginning.

The day after the proposal, Hinata finally decided that she had to get some things straight before she could move on in her life. Toneri had been her love but it was not the one she wanted and she was glad she was able to realize that earlier. She had to thank Toneri for always rejecting her a year ago because that helped her realize some things about herself and Toneri. His rejection had prevented her from making the biggest mistake of her life.

Taking a deep breath Hinata left her room to have breakfast with her family who seemed as normal as before, which meant that they didn't know about Toneri or what happened yesterday. Even if her family didn't know about it, she knew she had to face her father and tell him the truth, which she dreaded more than anything.

After breakfast, Hinata asked for an audience with her father and Sasuke. Hiashi decided to take it to his office where they could have privacy because he knew what his daughter wanted to talk about. After Hiashi told someone to summon Sasuke to his office, Hinata and him patiently waited for his arrival.

"Father, I want to speak with you about the ceremony for the wedding." Hinata spoke when Sasuke arrived and took a seat next to her in her father's office. She looked to her father in his office as he sat at his desk quietly, waiting for her to continue.

Throughout the entire walk down to the office Sasuke had kept an indifferent appearance, but on the inside he was anxious about why he was summoned. As soon as he entered the room and saw Hinata sitting in front of her father's desk, he knew she had made a decision.

 _She can't be serious_ , thought Sasuke, _that idiot was going to make the biggest mistake of her life if she gives even a second thought to that bastard Toneri._

In Sasuke's opinion, Toneri had acted like whatever he did to Hinata was justified, and he didn't even ask for forgiveness. Now, he was asking her to marry him. How could he change his mind just like that after he constantly refused and ignored her for a year, and that does not include how badly he treated her when she went to see him.

"I-I…I'm not going to attend it." Hinata's head lowered as Hiashi frowned.

Sasuke couldn't help but feel angry and hurt, for reasons he did not know nor acknowledged, because it was clear she wasn't going to go through with the ceremony, and that only meant one thing. She couldn't be serious in Sasuke's opinion because this was going to be the biggest mistake of her life.

Toneri had acted like whatever he did to her was justified, and he didn't even ask for forgiveness. Now, he's asking her to marry him. How could he change his mind just like that after he constantly refused and ignored her for a year, and that does not include how badly he treated her when she met him. Hinata couldn't be with a guy like this. She deserved so much more.

"But you have to, Hinata. It is a wedding ceremony for you and Sasuke."

"F-father…the thing is t-that me and S-Sasuke are not really married." Sasuke froze at her confession. _She really was going to go back to that bastard_ , he thought.

Sasuke didn't know why but the idea of her choosing Toneri just reminded him of Sakura. His fists clenched at the thought, but he kept his expression the same. He didn't want to show how this was affecting him.

"What do you mean?" Hiashi asked as his frown deepened.

"I-I didn't run away w-with Sasuke t-to elope with h-him…I r-ran away t-to be with T-Toneri." She kept her head down and Sasuke could see how afraid she was of her father's judgment.

"Toneri? The man from yesterday?"

"Yes father."

"If that's the case, then why did he ask you to marry him?" Hinata's eyes widened as she realized her father had listened in on her conversation with Toneri.

"He…H-he rejected me when I went t-to him. And I d-don't know why he's b-back now. He didn't care for a whole y-year and n-now he wants t-to be with me." Hinata was crying now and even though Sasuke wanted to hold her to make her stop, he held himself back from doing anything irrational.

Hiashi stayed quiet for a while trying to understand what the situation was, but then he turned to look at Sasuke.

"Did you know about this?" he asked.

"I didn't know about it at first. I only found out when I looked for her last week. I thought she came back home after meeting with Toneri." Sasuke answered honestly. There was no point in hiding anything anymore.

"So you two were never together for the past year?" Hinata and Sasuke shook their heads.

"F-father, Sasuke has b-been very kind to me, and he has gone out of his way for me many t-times. Please, don't hold anything against him." Hiashi stayed quiet for a few minutes as he regarded his daughter who still had her head down even as tears kept falling from her eyes.

"I suppose we have much to thank you for, Mr. Uchiha. You have no obligation to us and our family so you may leave any time you see fit." Hiahsi said indifferentlyas he got up to leave his office. "Hinata, we still need to discuss some things so I suggested you stay in Suna until we have them figured out." He then left with a somber look, leaving the two of them alone.

"I'm s-sorry Sasuke," she sniffed. "I always s-seem to put you in the w-worst situations." She laughed dryly.

"Hinata, are you really serious about this?" Sasuke asked guardedly because at one hand he didn't want to hear her say she wanted to be with Toneri, but on the other hand he needed to know.

"Yes," she answered as she finally looked at him. "This was t-too much for m-me to ask of you, and in the end, I-I can't wait for other people to save m-me. I have t-to own up to m-my mistakes."

Sasuke stayed quiet for a while, studying her face as she kept looking at him doing the same.

"Sasuke, thank you for everything." She smiled ruefully in the end as she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Her tears were dry by now and her eyes were still red, but her smile was beautiful even if it was sad.

"So is this it?" Sasuke asked.

"I guess. Now you c-can finally be r-rid of me." She smiled again trying to make a joke, but there was something poignant about the way her face changed.

Sasuke got up to leave the office leaving as Hinata just sat on the couch without moving a muscle. There was second where Hinata had wanted to tell Sasuke to stay even if the ceremony wasn't going to happen. She just wanted him to be here because after this she might never see him. He was the CEO of the Uchiha Company, he would never have time for someone like her. She was lucky enough to meet him through some twisted fate, and she had asked too much of him. It wasn't fair.

"Hinata, are you really going to marry Toneri?" Sasuke asked quietly as he strained his voice to be indifferent even if that wasn't the case. He was standing by the door with his back to her but he didn't open the door to leave, not yet.

"I-I…No of c-course not! Do you think I'm t-that stupid!" she half yelled at Sasuke in disbelief and exasperation.

Sasuke whipped his around as soon as he heard Hinata's tone. Was he missing something?

"But then why did you tell your dad that you weren't going to do the ceremony? You didn't have to tell him the truth about us," Sasuke looked at her skeptically as he fully turned towards her and took a few steps to stand right in front of her.

"I cancelled the ceremony because I wanted to tell my father the t-truth. I wanted to stop lying to him, not because I wanted to marry Toneri. Plus I was trying to give you an out because this was too much of me to ask of you. Why would you think that?" Hinata couldn't believe he thought she wanted to be with Toneri. She wasn't stupid. She knew that when a guy treated you as bad as Toneri, you don't go back to him.

Sasuke just shrugged in response as the constricted feeling in his chest faded and his shoulders relaxed. He propped back on the sofa where he was seated before but this time he was much more relaxed.

"You know you didn't have to cancel the ceremony," Sasuke said as an after thought as he laid his head back on the couch and stared at the ceiling.

"W-what do you mean?... D-did you w-want to h-have the ceremony w-with me?" Hinata blushed as she stared at Sasuke with wide eyes.

He shifted his head towards her taking in her expression, which was cute in his opinion. He then sat upright and leaned his head closer to her.

"You wish," he smirked as he whispered it just inches away from her. Hinata could feel his breath fan over her face as he spoke and her face turned even redder.

"I-I don't," Hinata barely managed to squeak out. Sasuke being this close to her was making all the blood rush to her head making it hard to really think straight.

"You don't?" He raised an eyebrow at her response.

"I m-mean I d-don't want t-the ceremony." She tried leaning her head back but Sasuke just kept leaning forward, never letting her face go more than a few inches farther than his.

"You don't want the ceremony." Her blush was beginning to reach her ears now, as Sasuke's mischievous smirk grew even bigger. "But you want me?"

"Sasuke!" Hinata pushed him away by the shoulders as he threatened to get even closer than before. _What was he going to do_ , thought Hinata as she cupped her cheeks and willed her heart rate to slow down.

"Hn," Sasuke got up once again to leave, but this time with a smirk. When he got to the door, he turned to her one more time and said, "I was just saying that because now you have to tell all of your family about why you want to cancel the ceremony."

Hinata's eyes widened as she realized what Sasuke was talking about. In return, he just smirked and left to go back to his guest room.

 _That idiot_ , he thought as a genuine smile, albeit small, graced his lips.


	9. Return

"Wait, I don't understand... Can you say it again?"

"What's there not to understand. Don't come to Suna anymore."

"Sasuke, I got that part. But what I don't understand is that you're not gettin married anymore?" Sasuke could hear Itachi's confusion from over the phone. He knew how weird it must seem to someone who doesn't know what was going on, but still Sasuke wasn't going to tell Itachi everything, well at least not all of it.

"Itachi, all you need to know is that you don't need to come to Suna anymore. I thought you'd be relieved seeing how riled up you were the last time we spoke."

"I wasn't riled up. I was just concerned about my little brother. I still am worried about you—"

"Is that Sasuke?" Sasuke heard his mother's voice in the background and prayed that Itachi hadn't told her anything. "Give me the phone. I want to talk to him."

"Mom, Sasuke isn't getting married anymore." Itachi replied to her in a calm manner but Sasuke was nowhere near that.

How dare Itachi tell his mother when he specifically said not to. Sometimes Itachi was such an obedient mama's boy.

"Itachi, I told you not to tell her," Sasuke growled into his cellphone.

"Look Sasuke, it was very ridiculous of you to think that I wouldn't find out. I'm your mother!" His mother had the phone right now and Sasuke knew he was about to get an earful about why he hadn't told her about anything. "Sasuke I can't believe you were going to get married without telling me! And I haven't even met the girl. I knew she was someone special when you went to look for her but I didn't know you were that serious? Sasuke don't you dare keep me out of this! I want to meet the girl."

"Mom," Sasuke groaned in frustration, "I wasn't getting married and I'm still not. I found Hinata and then brought her back to Suna to her family. There was just a little... misunderstanding."

"Don't try to fool me!"

"I'm not!"

"I don't care. I still want to meet her." Sasuke sighed at his mother's stubbornness but then he heard a knock on the door.

"Mom I have to go. I'll talk to you later."

"Don't think I'm going to forget about this, Sasuke," his mom said finally as he said goodbye and hung up the phone.

Sasuke got off his bed in the guest room and went to check who had knocked at such a time. He had stayed in for most of the day, not wanting to deal with the questions that would come about the cancelled ceremony. Surprisingly for the entire day no one had come to him to his room until now.

"Hinata," Sasuke whispered, "its almost eleven in the night. Isn't everyone like asleep by this time in your house?"

"Well I'm not sleepy," Hinata pouted.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at her childish response and opened his door further to let her in.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked as he closed the door and went to sit on the bed where he had been before.

"W-what do you mean?" Hinata took a seat on one of the couches that was right across from the bed.

"You're upset about something. Come on now spill it."

Hinata's eyes widened at the fact that Sasuke was able to read her so well by now.

"W-well, I spoke to father about somethings."

"And what happened?"

"He isn't really disowning me," Sasuke froze at the mention. Was her father really going to throw her out for a mistake. "Father thinks that it's for he best if I stayed somewhere else for the time being instead of at the compound."

"Why?" Sasuke couldn't help but begin to worry for Hinata. He didn't know why but this girl was causing him feel and display emotions he had never been comfortable with before meeting her.

"There's just a lot of people in the family who are asking about us and the ceremony. Soon there will be rumors too. Father thought I should stay away from all that. Maybe go back to Konoha and stay there until things settled down at home."

"And you're upset about that."

"Well I mean I wish I could stay with my family longer but I know what my fathers means. I don't want to face all the questions and rumours."

"I guess that makes sense... So you're finally going back to Konoha."

"Yeah," she smiled remembering how that was the place where she first met Sasuke. "I probably should leave as soon as possible."

"You don't mean right now?"

"No, I meant tomorrow. Why would you think that?"

"Because the last time you came in my room in the middle of the night you were going to run away." Sasuke smirked at the blush that formed on her face as she remembered the incident.

"I was just so stupid," she said as she shook her head of the embarrassment. It was different this time when she chided herself because even though she realized her mistakes, she wasn't devastated by them anymore. It was as if she had finally moved on from her past mistakes.

"You still are," Sasuke responded. He smirked as he dodged a couch pillow Hinata threw at him. He was really starting to enjoy teasing her since making her blush always satisfied him.

Hinata huffed her bangs and crossed her arms as she tried to glare at Sasuke. He was acting weird ever since she told the truth to her father. She blushed remembering what had happened in the office once her father left.

"Who have you told so far about us?" Sasuke asked taking her out of her thoughts. He got up from the bed and decided to sit on the couch with Hinata. Unlike last time when she had sneaked into his room, Sasuke didn't feel worry or any awkwardness. Maybe it was because people already assumed they were married, or maybe it was because he didn't care if they assumed or not.

"Um, I only told my dad, uncle Hizashi and Neji." Sasuke froze at the mention of Neji's name. Who knew what her cousin was going to do now that the truth was out. "Oh, I also told Hanabi..." Hinata's face fell as she remembered how that encounter with her sister had gone.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked as he saw how sad Hinata looked.

"N-nothing really, just...she was kind of upset t-that I didn't tell her the truth...but she understands now." Hinata smiled. "I just wish I hadn't wasted a year ignoring my family after Toneri rejected me."

At that moment, Sasuke wanted to hold her. He couldn't take how remorseful she looked. He knew he had thought of her as naive from the beginning, someone who would understand the realities of life the hard way. But he hadn't meant for it to happen to her in such a way.

"Sasuke," she turned to look at him, "when we get back to Konoha, do you think maybe we could...still stay in touch?" Sasuke frowned at her question. "I-I mean, we don't have to! I k-know you'll probably be b-busy with your company, a-and you've already done so much for m-me-"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not going to ignore you in Konoha."

"So...does that mean we can be friends?" she asked hopefully. She had been scared that once Sasuke left she wouldn't be able to see him anymore. She had always gotten him through so much unnecessary trouble so to her it made sense if her decided to ignore her.

"Hn," Sasuke shrugged indifferently on the outside, but on the inside he felt weird. He had never really had a girl as a friend. Sakura was someone he knew from childhood but later on became his girlfriend so technically he wasn't really friends with her.

"Well, actually, before we can be friends, I have to know more about you. I barely know anything."

"You know enough."

"I didn't even know you were an Uchiha until two days ago!" she said incredulously.

"Okay, fine. What do you want to know?" Sasuke said as he rolled his eyes.

"Hmm," Hinata thought as she tapped her chin. "What's your favorite color?"

"Is that really what you want to know?" he raised an eyebrow.

"I'm just getting started."

For the rest of the night, Sasuke and Hinata stayed up, asking each other about themselves. Well, Hinata was the one who did most of the asking but throughout the night they got to know more about each other. Sasuke was glad she hadn't asked about things he wasn't yet comfortable sharing, like his mother, Itachi, or even Sakura. He was way past the point where these things didn't affected him anymore, but that didn't mean he was ready to talk about it. Sasuke wasn't ready yet to open up about what happened with Saukra. He knew why his mother and Itachi did what they did, and even though it had hurt him, he forgave them because they had tried to do what was best for him and the family. But with Sakura, he still didn't want to think about why they had broken up. The truth was, he still wasn't sure what had went wrong, and that was the worst feeling, not knowing if you had done something wrong or not.

Soon the sun was beginning to rise and Sasuke realized that neither of them had been tired to fall asleep throughout their conversation. Sasuke and Hinata then decided to leave for Konoha together. They were going to leave early in the morning, before anyone in the compound could stop and question them. Hinata's father, uncle and Neji had driven them to the train station in the morning and had said their goodbyes as they dropped them off. None of her family paid much attention to Sasuke now that he wasn't really married to Hinata, but Neji still had his doubts. Sasuke didn't mind being ignored because he didn't want to deal with these people at the moment either.

Neji had promised to meet Hinata as soon as he got back to Konoha since his he was living there with his girlfriend now. Hinata's father had given her a long lecture reprimanding her about running away and all the other mistakes she had made, but in the end he had given her a hug which surprised Hinata. She returned the gesture with a tight hug and finally said goodbye to her family.

"Tell me why we're not taking the plane again?" Sasuke asked as he eyed the crowd of people waiting on the platform. They were walking inside the station trying to find the spot where their train was going to arrive

"Because there wasn't a flight available this early. Plus, I don't have enough money to buy a ticket, and I refuse to take any money from you." Hinata responded haughtily as the train to Konoha finally arrived.

As the passengers got on one by one, Sasuke and Hinata looked at each other once before they both rushed to the train. They barely made in time before the doors closed. They went to their seats and sat down with a sigh. Hinata looked to Sasuke once more before she burst into laughter. Sasuke couldn't help but smile as well.

"I swear, if we had missed this train, I wasn't going to be the one to bring you all the way to Konoha this time." He smirked as Hinata kept laughing.

It was funny how they had met on a train in the most unpredictable circumstances. Yet, somehow they hadn't turned into some strangers they met on a train somewhere. They were actually friends now. But was their journey going to make a full circle and end where it had started?

After their long and tiresome journey from Suna, Sasuke and Hinata finally arrived in Konoha.

"Ah, it feels good to be back!" Hinata cheered as she stepped out of the train, not minding the people who just walked by her, either ignoring her or giving her weird looks.

Sasuke just walked away, not wanting to deal with her overjoyed mood. It might have been Hinata's first time coming to Konoha in a year, but Sasuke had only left for a week. Now he had to go back to work. The thought of work made Sasuke even more tired, and he wanted nothing more than to go to his apartment and sleep. The events of this past week and the lack of sleep from last night were finally getting to him, draining the last of his energy.

"Wait Sasuke!" Hinata ran upto him as she lugged her bags behind her. She didn't have much but it still seemed heavy for her.

Sasuke took her bags from her and started unloading them in a taxi he had found outside the station.

"Oh I think I'll probably have to stay with Neji and his girlfriend for a while before I can find my own place," she said as she realized she had to tell the driver the address.

"I'm just going to call for a car from my office. I have to stop by there to get some work done," Sasuke told her since he hadn't placed his bags with her in the taxi, and he knew she was about to ask him from the puzzled look on her face.

"Oh..." she responded a bit dejectedly since she was hoping she would get to spend some more time with Sasuke. "I'll probably start working at Konoha General Hospital again," Hinata said trying to keep the conversation going.

Sasuke recognized the name and it made sense to him now that her call in the Land of Tea had been to her workplace, probably telling them of her absence.

"So...I guess I'll see you around?" Hinata tried asking casually but she couldn't help but be hopeful.

"Yeah." Sasuke took out his wallet to find his business card in there. On the back of it, he wrote down the number to his personal cell, and then gave it to her. "Here, this is my number...just call if you need anything, I guess," Sasuke shrugged. How did people do this without feeling awkward? "I know how much trouble you like to get in." He glared at her.

"I swear, I don't do it on purpose!" Hinata defended.

"Bye, you idiot." Sasuke just smirked, "I'll see you around."

"Bye!" she said with a big smile as she got in the taxi. She waved through the window as she drove away while Sasuke just watched her go.

The rest of the day, Sasuke stayed in his office trying to catch up on all the things he had missed this past week, but often he would catch himself thinking about nothing in particular or someone in particular. He shook his head to clear his mind and went back to concentrating at the object at hand.

There was one thing that was nagging Sasuke in the back of his mind and he couldn't figure out what it was. What he didn't know was that the Konoha General Hospital was the same place where Sakura had decided to do her residency when she ended medical school, which happened to be same time when Hinata was going to start working there again.


	10. Suspicions

"Sasuke are you still there?...Hellloooooo" Hinata drawled on the phone as she tried to see if someone was still listening to her on the other end of the line.

"Hinata, I can hear you clearly," Sasuke growled as he tried to rub sleep away from his eyes for the tenth time. He had been on the phone with Hinata for more than an hour and it was way past midnight now, but somehow neither of them wanted to end their conversation and hang up.

"Then why didn't you say something?" Hinata pouted as she laid on her bed with the phone to her ear. She had moved into a new apartment a week ago, right after she got her old job back at the Konoha General Hospital. That had taken only a few days since the staff was glad to have her back. She was glad to be back.

So far in the past two weeks that she had been in Konoha, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Sasuke had gotten busy in his work and Hinata had been busy trying to assemble her life back on track. She had to get her job back and find a new apartment. Hinata had hoped that she would still be able to see Sasuke as much as she had when they were together in Suna or in the Land of Waves. But since they had gotten back to Konoha, neither had any time for the other.

However, if she couldn't see him Hinata thought she could talk to him. She had been nervous when she tried calling him the first time. Sasuke had said that she could call him if she needed anything. The problem was that she didn't really need anything. She had tried coming up with excuses so she could call him without being suspicious. She knew he was busy with his work and she felt stupid for wasting his time like that. But she couldn't help but miss Sasuke. So she had finally decided to call Sasuke with no reason in particular, and just rambled the first few minutes about something she saw that say. She would call Sasuke in the evening when she was sure he was done with his work and they would just talk about random things. It was awkward at first since none of them knew what to say but soon they began their conversations which spanned from how their day went to anecdotes about their pasts.

"There is nothing for me to say," Sasuke answered her question, as he taid in his bed too. His eyes were slightly drooping but he forced them to stay open whenever Hinata spoke.

Sasuke had been relieved when he found out that Hinata hadn't considered Toneri's proposal. But his relief soon changed back to worry as they went back to Konoha. Who was to say, Hinata might find another guy who could trick her into loving him. She was too gullible and would believe any guy who pretended to be sincere in his feelings. For the first week after Hinata moved back to Konoha, Sasuke wanted nothing more than to keep an eye on her. He was worried that she would get herself in some kind of trouble again, but he was always too busy to ever get to see her. He wanted to call her but he didn't want to seem like some clingy boyfriend, because first of all they weren't dating so he had no right act like one, and second of all he didn't have her number. He had given her his number so all he could do was wait for her to contact him, which she finally did. Now for almost every night for the past week, they had spoken to each other over the phone.

"Sasuke!" Hinata huffed. "I called you for advice and you tell me that there is nothing for you to say."

"Okay fine, what do you need advice for?"

"I just told you. You weren't listening!"

"I was! Just...tell me again."

"Fine," Hinata sighed. "There's a few new medical residents coming to my hospital next week, and some are going to start working in my department. Now my supervisor wants to put me as the lead nurse in my department while the residents are settling into the hospital. I'm nervous because I've never really been in a position like that before."

"Hinata, you'll be fine," Sasuke said. He didn't know why she was so worried about this. She could do it.

"How can you say that? I am going to be incharge of ALL of the nurses in my department. I'm going to be assigning them their locations and then overseeing their patients as well and then I will be the one who they would have to go to when they had questions and then I'm the one who has to-"

"Stop worrying so much about it. Yeah, there's more responsibilities with this but you can do it. Why else would they chose you to be the one?"

"B-but -"

"Seriously Hinata, if you don't stop doubting yourself over this then I'm going to come to your work and make your job even harder."

"Fine," Hinata said as she couldn't help smiling at Sasuke. She really wished she could see him right now. She was about to say something but then she heard Sasuke yawn. She looked at the clock and realized how late it had gotten. "I'm so sorry Sasuke! I kept you up so late."

"It's fine. I would've hung up on you a long time ago if I didn't want to talk." He smirked.

"That would be so rude!" Sasuke chuckeld at her response.

"I guess we should go to sleep now," he said into the phone.

"Yeah..." Both of them got quiet for awhile, not wanting to say goodbye, but then Hinata spoke. "Sasuke, are you... never mind."

"What?"

"I just wanted to know, but I know you're really busy so it's okay."

"Just say it, Hinata. What is it?"

"I was just...wondering if you were free this weekend?" Hinata spoke quickly to get the words out before she got too nervous.

"I'm not sure...I don't really have anything set up for the weekend yet. Why are you asking?"

"Oh, it was just something silly."

"What is it?"

"It's just...we haven't really seen each other in a while so I thought maybe...we could hangout this weekend?"

Sasuke stayed quiet as he thought about Hinata's question. It was true that they hadn't really seen each other but they spoke on the phone often. What was confusing to Sasuke was the fact that he was so eager to see her. For the past week he had been feeling weird every time he thought about Hinata or when he spoke to her. But since he hadn't been seeing her at all, he never really confronted those weird feelings. Now that she had asked to hangout, he didn't know how he would feel when he actually saw her.

"Sure..." Sasuke finally replied.

"Really? There's this movie that we can watch, it just came out. Also, there's this new restaurant Kiba told me about, and I've been meaning to try it. We can probably go there too. Oh my god, it'll be so much fun!"

Sasuke couldn't help but smile at how easily Hinata got excited about the smallest things. Would she have been this excited if it was someone else that she would spend her weekend with?

"Well, you can plan out whatever. I have to go to sleep now."

"Ok. Goodnight Sasuke," Hinata said as she blushed at her own excitement when Sasuke agreed to hangout.

"Goodnight, Hinata," Sasuke said as he hung up the phone placed it on the bedside table. He laid back in his bed to sleep but the smile on his face never left.

The next morning Sasuke was in his office doing his work when Hinata texted him the details of a movie she wanted to watch. Picking up his phone without realizing the smile that was on his face, Sasuke answered her text saying that he was fine with anything.

"Sasuke, you're smiling at your phone," Itachi said in bewilderment as he stared at his younger brother from the entrance to his office.

"What do you want?" Sasuke immediately schooled his face back to a mask of indifference and placed his phone away on his desk.

Itachi eyed Sasuke suspiciously. "You never really told me or mother about why you cancelled the wedding or what happened to the girl you were looking for."

"It doesn't matter so can you just drop it."

Sasuke's phone buzzed again lighting up its screen with a text from a person named Hinata. Itachi caught a glimpse of the name before Sasuke could grab his phone to hide it. So it seemed that his little brother was still talking to the girl even if they weren't pretended to be married anymore.

"Sasuke, I came here to remind you that our meeting is going to start in ten minutes, but there are some documents that you have to look at before the meeting begins."

"Okay, I'm coming." Sasuke got up to leave his office but not before he placed his phone in his pocket. He saw how Itachi was looking at him suspiciously but the truth was that Sasuke wasn't ready to tell his family about anything between him and Hinata. This was because, first of all, he knew how they would misunderstand everything and just ruin the friendship they had. Secondly, Sasuke himself wasn't sure about how or what he felt at the moment, so he didn't want to be confused by his family's assumptions on what might actually be going on between them.

Itachi walked with Sasuke as they went to the conference room where the meeting was going to be held. Once they got in Sasuke took his seat and began reviewing the documents that were presented to him. Before the meeting started, Sasuke got up to get a glass of water, and on his way Itachi bumped into him. Itachi had pretended that he hadn't seen Sasuke coming in his direction so he ended up bumping into his brother. It was something harmless and nothing out of the ordinary, but with some slight of hand Itachi was able to take Sasuke's phone without him noticing it.

After the meeting ended, Itachi quickly left the conference room and went to his office. He knew it was wrong to go through his brother's phone but he couldn't help but be worried about him. He didn't know who Hinata was, and to him it seemed like his brother was getting too involved with a woman that could end up breaking his heart. It was quite often that they would find people who just wanted to be close to the Uchiha brothers for the wrong reasons, and Itachi just wanted to make sure that Sasuke wasn't being played by another woman. Itachi still believed that Sakura was just playing with his feelings because when she found out that being with Sasuke wasn't what she had hoped for, she left him.

Itachi unlocked Sasuke's phone thinking that finding out his password was really easy. Once he got to Hinata's messages he tried to look for anything suspicious. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary but what he did notice was that there were multiple calls to her phone every night and most of them were almost an hour long, some were even longer. Itachi began to get even more worried even though he couldn't find anything that would explain what was going on between the two of them. But one thing was clear which was that Sasuke was getting closer to this woman. He had never known his brother to open up to any woman since Sakura left him, but now he was talking to Hinata almost every night. He had to figure out what this woman's motives were before this got any further, because if Sasuke got his heart broken again Itachi wasn't sure how his little brother would recover this time.

Itachi sent a text to Hinata telling her to meet him, which she would think was Sasuke, at his apartment before they went to the movies on Saturday. He sent her the address which was actually Itachi's and waited for her to reply. When she replied, agreeing with meeting him at his apartment, Itachi deleted the message so that Sasuke wouldn't find out about it. Itachi wanted to meet this girl on his own and make a judgement from there.

When Hinata got the message from Sasuke telling her to meet up with him at his apartment before they went to the movies, she felt her heart speed up. She tried convincing herself that this was nothing but her heart kept telling her that she was hoping it meant something. It had to be a big deal if Sasuke invited her over to his place, right? He seemed like the guy who always kept his distance from people so Hinata thought that him inviting her over meant that he was letting her into his life. She still didn't know much about his past or his family so she hoped that he was slowly opening up to her. This logic sounded ridiculous in her head but she couldn't help but wish for it.

Hianta replied after succesfully calming herself down. Her blush was still evident but her heart had slowed down. She agreed to coming over and then assured herself multiple times that this didn't really mean anything no matter how much she tried to think otherwise.

After deleting the messages, Itachi took Sasuke's phone back to his office. He took a sigh of relief when he found out that his brother wasn't in there. He went in and place his phone under some papers on his desk to make it seem like it was there all this time. He quickly left his office before Sasuke could come in and become suspicious.

Sasuke walked into his office a while later not realizing that someone had been in there earlier. He reached for his phone in his pocket where he was sure he had placed it before the meeting, but couldn't find it. He looked around in his office until he found it on top of his desk. He was sure he had placed it in his pocket before heading to the conference room. He shrugged thinking that he must have forgotten it, and went back to his work. He had to do a lot today and he was diligently trying to finish everything before the end of the day because tomorrow he was supposed to meet with Hinata. He wouldn't admit it out loud but he was really looking forward to it.


	11. Date

Hinata stood in front of the door to what she believed was Sasuke's apartment. She paused several times before knocking, trying to make sure everything was in its place, from her hair to her purse to whatever she could think of. She wasn't stalling at all. From the other side Itachi observed the shy woman through the eyehole in the door. He had been watching her for the past ten minutes and yes he did feel like a creep, but he pushed the feeling aside for the excuse that this was to protect Sasuke. Honestly, he felt like a creep for the entire situation he had had put himself and Hinata in. She didn't know it yet, but what would she say when he opened the door and Sasuke didn't come. How would he explain this to her? Sasuke was going to be pissed about so many things that Itachi couldn't figure out which would get him more angry. Secretly using his phone without permission, going behind his back to see Hinata, lying to her by pretending to be Sasuke. What was he thinking when Itachi came up with this idea?

A hesitant knock on the front door brought Itachi out of his thoughts. He gulped once and schooled his face in an impassive mask before he opened the door.

Hinata watched as the door opened to reveal...not Sasuke. She had been expecting him and even had this stupid smile on her face that she didn't realize she had until the door opened to reveal this stranger. Had she been standing in front of the wrong apartment this entire time? A quick glance to the number written on the now open door told her that she was at the right place but then who was this person. It took her a second before she saw the uncanny resemblance to Sasuke. This had to be Itachi. Why else would he look so much like Sasuke and be in his apartment.

Hinata's cheeks reddened at the blatant scrutiny which Itachi was giving her. She felt that he was trying to pry open her biggest secrets with just one look.

"H-hello, is S-Sasuke here?" Hinata asked.

As if her voice had brought back some sense to him, Itachi spoke. "No he is not but you can come in and wait for him."

"Oh," was all she said before she walked in through the door when Itachi moved to let her in.

Her hands wrung around the strap of her purse on her shoulder as she eyed the living room where she awkwardly stood. Hesitantly, she sat on one of the maroon leather sofa while Itachi made his way after her and sat right across from her.

"You must be Hinata." At that her face perked up on the possibility that Sasuke might have spoken about her to him.

"Yes." She smiled at him.

"I'm Itachi. Sasuke's older brother." After that they had stayed quiet in the awkward silence for a few minutes before Hinata spoke again.

"W-when is Sasuke going to be here?"

"Well, about that," Itachi said as he finally found his opening to ask this girl some questions. "How do you know Sasuke?" He scrunched his eyebrows as he tried to assess her actions.

"Oh... um w-we met on the train in Konoha." She averted her gaze as a blush rose on her cheeks when she remembered the incident.

Itachi frowned at her response. That was lie number one. Sasuke would never take the train, not when he could just buy a plane ticket or take his car. He hated public transportation, plus him being an Uchiha made it impossible to safely travel in public places like that.

"H-he was very nice to me w-when I missed my train in the Sound Village." Itachi raised an eyebrow at her answer as he tried to think if she was being serious. He could almost laugh at that. Sasuke, and nice, especially to a girl, never. Lie number 2.

"He took me all the way to my home in Suna after that." She smiled while both of Itachi's eyebrows rose even higher. "He then went with me to the Land of Tea to meet my boyfr -exboyfriend-" Hinata corrected. "He even came to get me back from the Land of Waves when I didn't go home for a year." Hinata kept smiling as she stared at a random spot on the floor thinking about Sasuke while Itachi sat in his spot with a frown on his face.

In the beginning he thought that she was lying about how they met and how Sasuke treated her. It didn't seem like something he would do, but then Itachi realized that Sasuke had indeed gone after her just a few weeks ago when he thought she was missing. At that moment Itachi had thought that she was just someone Sasuke liked but now it was obvious to him what Sasuke felt for this girl. He genuinely cared for Hinata, even if he didn't accept it himself. The question now was whether Hinata felt the same way. Itachi hated to see his brother's heart break again if Hinata didn't see Sasuke as anything more than a mere friend.

"Hinata," Itachi said to gain her attention. "What do you think of Sasuke?"

"He's really amazing." Her smile grew even bigger.

"No." Itachi shook his head. "Maybe I should word it better. What do you _feel_ about Sasuke?" Itachi observed the girl in front of him as her smile slowly diminished from her face.

She looked at him for a moment trying figure out what, or why Itachi was asking. Deep down Hinata knew what she felt for him, but it was a matter of whether she was ready. She had wasted so much of her time loving and chasing someone only to be rejected in the end. Was she prepared to do that again? What if Sasuke didn't feel the same way.

"I...I don't know-"

"Don't lie," Itachi cut her off. "Do you...have feelings for him?"

Hinata bit her lip as she contemplated telling Itachi what she felt. Maybe he might be able to help since he was close to Sasuke.

"I do but...I'm not sure if that is what is best for me right now." Itachi frowned but did not say anything. "I...I was in a relationship until l-last year. I almost gave up everything just to be with him but in the end he j-just left me because he didn't feel the same way...I don't want that t-to happen again. This time I want to be certain that I am on the same page with the other person on our feelings and what we want before we start anything."

Itachi smirked inwardly as he heard what Hinata said. _So it seems that they're both afraid to start something new,_ Itachi thought. Sasuke had trouble opening up or finding a stable relationship again after him and Sakura broke up. He never said it out loud but Itachi new that his brother was afraid to let something like that happen to him again. Now it seemed that Hinata was in the same boat. Itachi thought that he had to do something because without some urging, they would forever avoid the next step.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you something, Hinata." He snapped his fingers as if he just remembered something while Hinata just looked at him curiously at his random gesture. "Sasuke told me that he would be meeting you at the theatre. He told me to tell you just in case you came here but I completely forgot. My apologies." He smiled at as he got up to escort Hinata out. "

"That's weird. He could've just texted me," Hinata said but then shrugged and followed Itachi.

"Yes. I guess he must have forgotten. I would suggest that you don't bring up coming here because he would get really upset that you had to travel this much at his expense." He smiled sweetly as Hinata walked out his door.

"Okay. Goodbye Itachi." She smiled back with a blush as she remembered how she used to have a crush on the older Uchiha when she was younger, but now who would've guessed that she would be falling for the younger one.

Hinata bit her lip as she realized what she had just thought but shook her head in the end to forget that she ever had that thought.

* * *

Outside the theatre Sasuke waited on a bench for Hinata to arrive. She was late and the movie had already started. They would have to get new tickets and that would push back all their other plans.

Sasuke was about to get his phone out to call her but then he saw her running towards him.

"I'm sorry Sasuke," she panted. "I was at...uh...I got stuck in traffic." Sasuke rolled his eyes at her stupid excuse but decided to drop it because now they had to figure out what to do next.

"Well, we missed the showtime already. Do you want to buy another ticket?"

"No that's okay. We can just...I don't know, hangout before the dinner reservation." Sasuke raised a brow at her suggestion.

"Well where do you want to 'hangout.'" He felt like a teenage in high school talking like that.

"I don't know," Hinata shrugged. "Can we go for a walk? I want to show you my favorite spot in the city."

"Okay," Sasuke said as he smiled in amusement.

Without thinking Hinata grabbed his hand and started leading the way. In response Sasuke enclosed her hand in his grip and he didn't know why he held on as if he didn't want her to let go. With a slight blush on Sasuke's face, and a brighter one on Hinata's, the both of them walked hand in hand to the park without uttering a single word, but they were comfortable with that.

"We're here," Hinata said as she extended her free arm out to the area in front of them. It was the park where a clear lake ran through diving it in to two sections. This one was more bare and had less of the aesthetic looking plants that were placed around the other side of the park, but you had a bigger view of the lake from here. "Come on." Hinata tugged on Sasuke's hand as she walked further towards the edge of the lake. There was a stone bank all around the lake you could even sit by it.

"This is your favorite spot?"

"Yeah."

"But it's so...empty." Hinata looked at him questioningly as if trying to ask what he meant. "I thought you would like all those cherry blossom trees or the gardens on the other side."

"I do like them. But the view of the sunset is the best here." As if on cue the sun began to lower on to the horizon right above the lake creating a reflection on it of all the colors in the sky.

It was like the sky painted the water and the ripples there made it seem like it was smudged like an oil painting. Looking back to his life Sasuke realized that he had never taken the time to ever watch a sunset and enjoy it. He turned to look at Hinata who was standing right beside him with her hand still in his grip. The shades of color from the sky brightened her face and Sasuke just kept staring at her as she watched the sun set. He gently squeezed her hand and she tore her gaze away from the view to stare back at him. They stood there like that for a while just staring at each other and not saying a single word. Slowly, Sasuke brought up his free hand to trace her cheek before he held it in his hand. Hinata parted her lips and soon both of them began leaning closer. It was just like the time in the hotel in the Land of Waves before Neji called, but this time there was no disturbance to stop them from going in for a kiss.

When their lips finally met, Hinata let out a sigh as she brought her free hand to his shoulder. Both of them closed their eyes as Sasuke pressed his lips closer to hers feeling how soft they were. They still held each other's hand as the kiss deepened with every second. His hand slowly moved in to her hair pulling her head closer to taste her. Hesitantly, Hinata parted her lips for Sasuke when he licked her bottom lip but slowly she began to respond to him with her own tongue.

When they finally parted to catch their breaths, Sasuke didn't let go of Hinata and she didn't mind. He touched his forhead to hers and couldn't help the smile that broke out on his face when he took in Hinata's blushing face. She was smiling back at him as a bubbly feeling began erupting in her stomach. She knew she had been keeping this feeling at bay whenever she was around Sasuke, but she didn't want to hold back on it anymore. As long as Sasuke was with her, she was happy.

For the rest of the evening, Sasuke and Hinata spent their time like they had planned. They went to the new restaurant that Hinata wanted to try and afterwards Sasuke drove her in his car to get some ice cream.

"You're ice cream is all melting," Sasuke said as he sat right next to Hinata on a bench outside the ice cream shop.

"I know," Hinata huffed.

"You should've gotten a cup, idiot."

"But I wanted a cone." Hinata glared at him and went back to eating her strawberry ice cream while Sasuke occasionally took a bite from his coffee one. He wasn't a fan of sweet things, but the bitter taste of coffee made the ice cream bearable.

"Are you sure you don't want to try some of mine?" Hinata asked.

"No." He wasn't going to abuse his taste buds with the sugar overload of Hinata's ice cream. She even got a sugar cone as if she didn't have enough from the ice cream.

"You should try it. It's really good." With a shake of his head as a response Hinata pouted but went back to her cone.

After she had finished hers, Sasuke threw his away and they went back into his car.

"It's getting late so I'll take you home." Sasuke said as he started his car. "What's your address?"

Hinata gave him her address and then they drove in silence to her place. When he got to her apartment, he parked his car in the front.

"Thanks for s-spending the day with me." Hinata smiled as she peeked at him from her seat.

"Yeah...I had fun." Sasuke looked at her blushing face before he returned her smile.

"Goodbye Sasuke," she said as she reached for the handle to open the door.

"Goodbye Hinata." When Hinata didn't move to leave his car Sasuke spoke again. "What's wro-"

He was cut off by her lips as she quickly turned to give him a kiss before she jumped out the car and ran away giving a wave to him before she went into her apartment building.

Sasuke bit his lip as he saw her walk in. He didn't want to leave but reluctantly did so when she was inside. He hadn't been lying when he said that he had fun but he secretly wanted more.

The day after the next day, Sasuke went back to work as so did Hinata, but they both had the events from the weekend stuck in their head. Hinata was giddy and excited that they had finally kissed, but what did it mean in the future for them. They never really said anything afterwards and Hinata still wasn't sure if she was ready for commitment. All she knew was that she just liked being with Sasuke.

"Hey Hinata did you meet the new resident in the emergency department?" asked one of Hinata's colleagues.

"No, I haven't really met any of the new resident doctors here," Hinata replied to Ino.

"Oh, well she's pretty good from what I've heard. And a lot of the male nurses and doctors are already talking about how hot she is." Ino rolled her eyes. "Honestly, sometimes I think that we're working with a bunch of stupid frat guys when I hear them talk." Hinata giggled.

"Well, it's nice to know that she is getting along with the staff and the hospital. I hope all of the residents are getting along here too."

"Yeah, well you keep hoping. I'll see you for lunch," Ino said as she waved to Hinata and went back to work.

When it was Hinata's lunch break, Ino took hers as well so they could eat together. They sat in the hospital's cafeteria eating their food when a group of doctors in their white coats passed by them.

"All the residents like to stick together. They even try to eat lunch together." Ino looked at the group sitting a few tables away from them. "He's kind a hot," she said as she stared at one of the men sitting there. "Oh, that's her. You know the woman I was talking to you about earlier." Ino subtly pointed at one particular person in the group.

Hinata turned to see who it was but as soon as she did, she made eye contact with the person Ino had pointed to. A few seconds later the pink haired woman excused herself from the table she was sitting at and walked towards Ino and Hinata's table.

"Hello, my name is Sakura Haruno. I'm the new resident in the emergency department." She looked back at the two with an expectant smile waiting for them to say something.

"I'm Ino and this is Hinata." Ino indicated towards her lunch partner. "We're both in the emergency department too, but I think our shifts have never really been at the same time as yours so we never got to meet you."

"Oh. My shift is about to start soon but I decided to get some lunch before it did. Well I'm glad I get to work with you guys today. I'm going to head back but it was nice to meet you two." She smiled sweetly at them before going back to say goodbye to her table and then went to start her shift. She looked back to Hinata's table one more time before she left the cafeteria.

Sakura had seen Sasuke around town after their break up and had never dared to go up to him even though he was mostly alone but just last weekend she had seen him with a girl in a restaurant. Was he on a date? Had he started a new relationship? Sakura didn't know who the girl was but she had seen her face, and now when she saw her sitting in the cafeteria she immediately recognized her so she had to go and meet her. Even though Sakura and Sasuke had broken up years ago and now she was married, Sakura couldn't help but think about Sasuke and all the what-ifs that would come up when she thought back to their relationship.

"She seems nice...a bit too nice." Ino frowned before she went back to the discussion they were having before Sakura came.

Hinata pretended to listen but she kept thinking about Sakura and how she spoke to them. She couldn't believe this was the woman who had broken Sasuke's heart. She was absolutely beautiful, and she did seem nice, but she couldn't believe that this person was capable of betraying Sasuke like that and breaking his heart. She was just going to keep her distance from Sakura because even if she didn't know her, Hinata knew her past and she wasn't really fond of her already.

Over the next week Hinata continued her work as usual and she had gone back to talking to Sasuke over the phone every night even though she never told him about meeting Sakura. She was afraid that if she did then some of his old emotions would come back whether they were good or bad. She wasn't sure what Sasuke would say about Sakura but she couldn't find out until she told him which she decided to do at the end of the week.

"Sasuke...what do you think about Sakura?" Hinata asked as she held the phone to her ear waiting for a response.

Sasuke froze at her question and did not say anything. Why was she asking this all of a sudden?

"I used to date her a long time ago."

"Did you love her?"

"...Yes"

"Do you still do?"

"No...why are you asking?"

"What happened between you two?"

Sasuke sighed at her question, knowing that one day she would ask about it but he didn't realize it would be so soon.

"I already told you. She left me to be with my best friend." Sasuke didn't give any details as he thought that if she really wanted to know then she would ask him again.

"What about your best friend then? Do you...hate him?"

"I used to...but I guess now I just don't care anymore."

"Why?"

"It just doesn't hurt like it used to before so I can let go of things easily now." Sasuke smiled as he thought that Hinata was the reason why he didn't feel that way anymore.

"Oh...So you've moved on?"

"Yes."

"So does that m-mean that you're ready to..." What she wanted to ask was that whether he was ready to start a new relationship, possibly with her, but she was too afraid to ask it out loud.

"What is it Hinata?"

"Uh...do you want to hangout again this weekend?" She tried to divert the subject.

"Sure," Sasuke responded but he knew that she was going to ask something else before. He decided to just wait for Hinata to ask whatever it was when she was ready. "I'll pick you up tomorrow, but you might have to come to my apartment first..."

"Why?"

"Well...my mom has been asking me to bring you over so she could meet you."

"Oh..." Hinata blushed at the thought of meeting his mother.

"Yeah...she's coming over for lunch with my brother tomorrow, and if you want, you can join us too so that way she can finally shut up about wanting to see you."

"I-I guess." Hinata bit her lip nervously.

"I'll pick you up at noon tomorrow."

"Okay. Goodnight Sasuke."

"Goodnight Hinata." Sasuke hung up the phone and went to sleep with the anticipation of having Hinata meet his mom tomorrow. He kept telling himself that it wasn't a big deal but he knew his mom wanted to meet her for a reason. He just hoped that she didn't do anything to scare Hinata away.

The next day, Sasuke picked up Hinata from her place and took her back to his apartment. She was wearing a blue sundress since it was kind of hot today but Sasuke couldn't help but stare at her because she was wearing his favorite color. They both kept blushing every time she would catch him staring.

When they got to his apartment, Hinata gave him a confused look as she saw that this building was not the same as the one she had gone to last time when she met Itachi.

"This is where you live?" asked Hinata in disbelief.

"Yes. Is something wrong with it?" He raised a brow at her question.

"N-no! I thought you lived with Itachi."

"Itachi lives at least a few blocks away from here. This is my own apartment. But today my mom and Itachi are over so you'll be seeing them."

Hinata eyes widened as she heard what Sasuke said. So if Itachi didn't live with him then how come Sasuke gave her his address to meet him for the movies? And Itachi didn't say anything either when she asked for Sasuke. She would ask him that later.

They went up to his apartment as Hinata kept thinking to herself and when Sasuke opened his door they were greeted by his mother who seemed like she had been waiting for them all this time.

"Is that Hinata?" His mom spoke before he even got in through the door.

"Yes. You wanted to meet her so badly so now she's here. But don't say anything stupid to her," Sasuke whispered to her as he gave his mom a hug before walking into his room for something.

Mikoto just smiled as she went to Hinata to greet her with a hug.

"I'm so glad to finally meet Sasuke's girlfriend. When I found out that Sasuke was going to marry you, I was so upset because first of all he didn't tell me and second of all I never had a chance to meet you. I wasn't sure what kind of girl you were. I never even knew that Sasuke had a girlfriend. But now that you guys aren't getting married just yet, I have my chance to meet you before you actually do. He barely brought any girl home so I never knew about his girlfriends, but he was ready to marry you so I had to force him to let me meet you. I needed to see who had taken my baby boy's heart." She smiled at Hinata's blushing face thinking how cute she was.

Hinata wasn't sure how or if she should explain that the wedding was just pretend, but then she kept calling her Sasuke's girlfriend which made Hinata a little sad because they hadn't really spoken about their relationship after the kiss. His family misunderstood and thought that they were dating because of the wedding thing and Sasuke never denied it, but she wanted Sasuke to tell her himself that he wanted to be in a relationship with her. Only then would it be real.

"Mom, stop embarrassing her," Itachi spoke as he walked up to them. "Hello Hinata," he said with a nod and went to the kitchen afterwards. He avoided making eye contact with her for a long time and didn't say much to her after that. Hinata on the other hand said a small hello to him in response and blushed even more when she remembered that she was alone in Itachi's apartment the last time she met him.

This was going to be an interesting lunch.


	12. Meet the family, Part 2

**Sasuke's POV**

This was a bad idea. The worst one I've ever had. What was I thinking bringing Hinata to have lunch with my family?

At the moment my mom was desperately trying to find an album with my baby pictures to show to Hinata. It was irritating how my mom kept talking to Hinata and taking her around the apartment as if it was only them two. The first hour after I brought Hinata, my mom started talking to her nonstop, asking her about herself and her past, leaving Itachi and me out of the conversation. I could sense some awkwardness between Itachi and Hinata, but I waved it off since they just met, but then when mom needed something from the store, Itachi immediately volunteered. Now it was just me who was being ignored by the two women in my apartment.

Slowly, I started taking interest in what they were talking. It was true that I knew Hinata for almost a year now, but I still didn't know much about her and her past. Thinking about it now, Hinata doesn't know much about my past and me either.

"So how long have you two been together?" Mikoto asked as she glanced at both of us with a smile.

"Uh…" Hinata blushed.

"I don't really…" I was at a loss of words. What do I say? Looking over at Hinata, I knew that she was trying to figure what to say as well. We have already kissed. So does that mean that we're…I bit the inside of cheek thinking about the implications were if we decided to be together. We both had bad experiences in our previous relationships, and even though it has been a while since then, does it mean that we're ready? Looking over at Hinata, I felt something constrict within my chest. No matter what happened, there was one thing I knew for sure. I never wanted to be separated from Hinata. I don't know when or how it happened, but her presence became like a fixture in my life whether it be in person or just her voice. I can't imagine what it would be like if she wasn't in my life anymore, of if she decided to be with someone else.

"We're…we're not really…togeth –"

"We're not?" I asked Hinata in confusion while cutting her off. I don't know why I was so confused when I just thought through this in my head right now, but just hearing say it made me want it to not be true.

"I-I mean…" Hinata faltered. She turned towards me pleading with her eyes for confirmation.

With wide eyes and an interested look on her face, Mikoto looked at the two people in front of her. This was like a movie scene for her. All she needed was some popcorn.

"What do you want?" I asked forgetting that we had my mother as an audience.

"I…" Hinata bit her lip before taking a deep breath. "I want to b-be…" even without finishing her sentence I could see what she was trying to say in her eyes.

"Me too," I said with a smile which Hinata returned with one of her own.

"Oh my god," my mom gaped. "Sasuke, you're smiling." Way to ruin the moment. I rolled my eyes.

"One minute," I said as I looked at my mom.

"What?"

"Hinata and I have been together for exactly one minute now." I looked at the clock.

"Wait…so you weren't proposing to her right now?"

"No." Why does this woman always exaggerate things?

"You guys just got together…right now?" She asked in disbelief.

"Oh…um" Hinata lowered her head to hide her blush and the smile that still played on her lips.

"Yes. Just right now." I answered with indifference but on the inside my heart was doing flips.

"But then –"

"Oh look, Itachi's here," I cut her off when I saw Itachi entering through the front door and head towards us with the stuff my mom asked for.

I knew what my mom was going to ask and I didn't think Hinata wanted to discuss the circumstances around our wedding ceremony. It wasn't supposed to be real and in the end it never happened, but for my mom it was real because she didn't know why her son was doing something like this. She wouldn't understand because she's always seen me have contempt for love for all these years.

"Wait, Sasuke," my mom spoke once she saw me get up after grabbing Hinata's hand.

"I'm going to take her to the roof to show her something," I said as I walked towards the front door with Hinata right behind me. "We'll be back in a few minutes before you start lunch, so don't worry about us." With that I closed the door before my mom could say anything. Itachi had a confused expression but didn't question me.

I pulled Hinata along as we took the stairs up to the roof. We were both quiet but with a glance I could see that she was still smiling.

"What did you want to show me?" She asked as she looked around the empty area.

"Nothing. I just needed an excuse to get you away." I grabbed her waist and pulled her towards me before capturing her soft lips with mine. "Are you sure about this?" I asked when I pulled a way no more than an inch.

"Yes," she nodded and closed the gap between us once again with a kiss.

She brought her arms around my neck and stood on her toes to reach even closer when we kissed. Then, before parting, I placed a few more soft kisses on her lips as she brought her hands down to my chest..

"I think w-we should go back." She bit her lip and lightly pushed on my chest when I tried moving closer to her again. "Sasuke, we h-have to go back," she said, but with a smile and a blush on her face.

"Okay." I gave her a kiss on the forehead before entwining my hand with hers and heading down the stairs. I had a hard time trying to control the smile on my face before we went inside my apartment.

The rest of the lunch went quite peacefully. I was expecting my mom to pester Hinata, or me but she had just gone back to Hinata asking her about her life before meeting me. It was interesting to hear how Hinata was in the time that I didn't know about her. It was weird knowing that we had been living in Konoha for so long yet our paths never crossed until I decided to get on a random train. Imagine if I had gone into any of the other trains that were waiting in the station while I was there. I would have never met Hinata.

We ended up spending the entire time at my apartment with my family. My mom somehow found my photo album and showed Hinata every possible embarrassing photo of me.

"Who are they?" Hinata asked as she pointed at a picture of me with two other people when I was younger.

"Oh, this is from a field trip in middle school that Sasuke took with his friends. These are Naruto and Sakura. They practically grew up together." Hinata kept staring at the picture for a little longer before my mom flipped to another page.

Hinata knew about Sakura and Naruto from what I told her so far, which was minimal, but seeing their faces and finding out just how long we knew each other for would make her see them in a whole new way. As much as I liked the time that I spent with my friends in the past, except for the breakup, I did not want Hinata to know these people, especially Sakura. I don't know why but it always worries me when I think about the circumstances around our breakup. It felt like I was being superstitious as if Hinata meeting Sakura would cause her to leave me as well.

"Well I guess it's time for me to leave as well," my mom spoke as Hinata and her finished going through the album.

I hadn't realized that so much time had passed already. I was so lost in thought that I don't remember Itachi leaving almost an hour ago.

"It was nice to meet you Ms. Uchiha." Hinata smiled at her as she got up to gather her stuff.

"Oh, please. Call me Mikoto." She looked at Hinata with a sly look. "And maybe you can call me mom soon." She winked and then laughed at Hinata's cherry red face as she stammered out a response while I just glared at my mother, ignoring my own blush. "I hope to see you more often." She went up to hug Hinata who responded to the warm embrace with a smile despite the blush she was sporting. Then my mom walked towards me to give me a hug before she left. "I like her," she whispered as she hugged me.

"Hn," was my response but I knew that I was glad my mother liked Hinata.

"Don't keep her all to yourself," she warned me mockingly before waving at Hinata. "Goodbye Hinata!" and after that she was gone.

"I should be h-heading back too," Hinata nervously said as the awkward silence between us grew. She was still nervous over my mom had implied before she left and I knew why. It was all pretend back then when her family thought we ran away together, but after chasing a guy for a false idea of a happy married life she was reluctant to think about something like that again. She didn't want to create a false hope, especially since she wasn't sure what I thought about it. We just barely decided to start something together.

"I'll take you back." I went to grab my car keys.

"Thank you," she said before we went down to my car. For next few minutes she didn't say anything until we got to her apartment.

"Thank you for inviting me for lunch and i-introducing me to your family, Sasuke. I really liked them." She smiled as she spoke after I parked my car on the street in front of her apartment building.

I nodded in response. "I guess I'll see you…"

"I have work tomorrow," she said a little disappointedly.

"I thought you didn't work on the weekend."

"I had to take up a shift for someone who was taking the weekend off. It's just tomorrow."

"Hn...I'll call you then."

"Okay." She smiled. "Goodbye Sasuke," she said after giving me a soft kiss on the cheek and got out of my car to head to her apartment.

* * *

 **I know this is a short chapter even after posting it so so late and I'm sorry. Please forgive me :'(**


	13. Decisions

**It has been a loooong time.**

 **Thank you everyone who reviewed and stuck around with this story even until now. I'm sorry for making you wait so long.** **I hope you enjoy this!**

 **The story is almost at its end. A few more chapters left.**

 **Please do review and send me your thoughts on this. It was really motivating to see people still reading and reviewing on this after so long. Thank you!**

* * *

After meeting my family, Hinata and I started dating, and we had been together for almost 6 months now. It was great, we were happy, and everything seemed to be going fine, well as fine as it could be.

"What did you say?" I could not believe Hinata could say something like that.

"I just...I didn't say she did the right thing, Sasuke," she pleaded. "I just said t-that I understand why she did it." She replied in a small voice, while she avoide my glare.

She knew very well how much Sakura had hurt me, then why would she say that. There is nothing that could justify what she did.

I turned to leave the room, not wanting to look at her, and also not wanting to say something to her in anger that I'll regret later.

"W-wait! Where are y-" I shut the door before she could finish the sentence and walked away from my apartment.

In the past six months we had grown really comfortable around each other. It should have been surprising, but I guess we had traveled together so many times now that it was easy for us to be around one another.

I couldn't admit this aloud, but I never thought I would have something like this again, especially with a girl like Hinata. She was completely different than anyone I had ever met. I thought I had learned my lesson, that I would never fall for someone again, never let someone have the power to hurt me again. But, somehow, Hinata came up in my blindspot, and before I knew it, things were changing. More than anything I could think of, there was one thing I was thankful for, and that was meeting Hinata. But now, I was afraid that even she would end up hurting me in the end, just like Sakura.

It was still a sore subject to talk about my past relationship. Sure, I had spoken to Naruto, but there was still a strain between us that I didn't want. He was the closest friend I had ever had, and I had known his feelings for Sakura. He had even asked me when things got sour between me and Sakura. It wasn't his fault he was swept into Sakura's selfishness. Whatever had happened was between me and Sakura. She was the one that decided to leave me. She was the one who wanted to end things because, in her words I wasn't what she wanted, what she had hoped for. What a way to make a guy feel worse after leaving him.

But that should have been in the past, yet why does the thought of her still irritate me. I should be over her, and way past this shit. But then why?

Looking around, I realized I had walked out on the sidewalk for a while because I was farther than my apartment. Breathing a sigh, I decided to go back since my anger had dissipated a little after walking for more than an hour. It was confusing and frustrating why I still let that woman bother me, but maybe it was the thought that what she said was true. Maybe I wasn't good enough, and maybe Hinata would realize that too.

"Sasuke!" At the sound of my name I turned to see Hinata running towards me. I frowned in confusion at seeing her, but it was amusing watching her run with such a determined look. She kept running without slowing down, and before I could move out of the way, she crashed into me. It was hard keeping my balance, but somehow I managed to not fall while Hinata clung to me.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you upset when I said that. I don't exactly know what happened between you two but I know what she did was wrong. She hurt you, and...and it just bothered me that you were still...that she was still able to affect you. B-but I know-" She was just rambling at this point so I shut her up by poking her forehead. She looked scared but her face broke out in a smile when she saw me smirk. It was hard staying mad at her for long. And this hadn't been our first fight either so we knew how to settle our arguments, at least so far.

That night, when we got back to my apartment, I made a decision.

"I'm going to talk to Sakura." I stated while eating dinner.

"W-what!" Hinata almost spat out the water she was drinking.

"You're right. Sakura...I still feel angry towards her, and I don't want to feel anything for her, even if it's negative. I just want..." I couldn't explain it but hopefully Hinata understood.

"You want closure." She smiled.

"Yeah, I guess." I shrugged. "But where am I going to find her? I don't want to have to call Naruto and ask him for his wife. That'll be weird." I thought of where I could find Sakura and talk to her.

"W-well," Hinata laughed nervously, "I might be able to h-help you with that."

"How?" I frowned.

"She actually, um...works in the same hospital as me." She spoke the last part quickly but I was able to catch every word of it.

"What?"

"She's been working there for the past year." Hinata avoided eye contact.

"Wait a minute."

"She even w-works in my department." Her voice continued to shrink.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Hinata looked away but did not answer. She had a blush growing on her cheeks which meant it had to be something embarrassing.

"Hinata," I said slowly, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know." She shrugged.

"Really?" I said sarcastically as she eyed me from the corner of her eyes.

"Fine," she sighed, "I was...I w-was afraid you hadn't...you hadn't gotten over her." She looked away.

"Hinata..." I was surprised to hear her say that.

"Y-you never want to talk about her, and...and she's really pretty."

"Hinata-"

"She's a doctor now."

"That doesn't-"

"And everyone thinks she's amazing."

"Hinata, stop it." She stayed quiet. "Are you...are you jealous of her?" I asked hesitantly, not wanting to offend her.

"No..." She looked away again. I could tell she was lying.

"Look, I don't care how she looks and what she's become, and you shouldn't either. She's in my past...I just have to talk to her to get some things straight."

"Ok." Hinata observed me for a minute before nodding her head and going back to her food, but not before stealing a bite from mine. She always said she wasn't a fan of tomatoes, but she always stole some from my plate during dinner. I smirked at her as she blushed and smiled while eating the cherry tomato.

* * *

This was ridiculous. It was stupid. How did I ever come up with this idea.

I was currently sitting in the courtyard outside of the hospital, holding my cup of coffee, thinking of ways to back out of what I was about to do. Hinata had told me when Sakura's shift would end, and I felt like a stalker showing up at her work unannounced like this. But what other option did I have to talk to her. And in all honesty, I did not want Naruto to know that I was planning to meet his wife. This was between me and her, and I did not want the blond idiot trying to interject when he was not a part of it.

As I sat on the bench in the afternoon, I thought back to a time when me and Sakura were still together. Years had passed, and I still try to figure out what had gone wrong. I always tried to figure out what the exact moment was where things began to change, but I could never come up with anything. Everything was the same from my side as it had been from the beginning, which was why Sakura's decision had blindsided me. Was she not happy? Did she feel like that from the beginning? If so then why hadn't she said anything?

I couldn't help but remember how Sakura had ended things between us, but it didn't matter now because things could never go back to the way they were, and I was happy with that. But there was something that was holding me back from moving on, and I could feel it.

"Sasuke, is that you?" I turned my head at the sound of my name. Sakura was walking out of the building and towards me with a bright smile on her face.

Taking a deep breathe, I decided to get this over with.

"Hello, Sakura. Can we talk?"


End file.
